The Riddle and the Rose
by Lady Mayrid
Summary: When Harry learns that the key to destroying Voldemort is lost somewhere in time, he sends his daughter, Lily, to the past in order to retrieve it. Stuck in 1944 with no way back, Lily must learn to survive in a world where tradition is everything, allies make the best friends and one particular boy is anything but what he seems… R
1. Tied for Last

**A/N:** So, here it is, '_Across Time'_ 2.0. Obviously the title's changed but I assure you all that it's the same story with the same basic plot and the same cast of characters but with a few changes, a lot of embellishments and a much more complicated plot-line. I started writing _'Across Time'_ the first time after HBP came out but before DH so as far as the plots are concerned, there will be elements (names, places, _some_ events) of the final book incorporated into my story line but as a whole it can really only be classified as HBP compliant. One more quick thing before you commence with your reading; I'd like to warn everyone that as of yet, none of the following chapters have been beta-ed – although if somebody would like the job (and it's a big job) please let me know – so unless it's a glaring mistake having to do with Harry Potter cannon and facts, I don't want to hear that I left out a common in any of my reviews. That having been said, I please read, review and enjoy the following story and as always, I would like to hear from all of you.

Cheers!

* * *

**Chapter One: Tied for Last**

_The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches:_

_Born to those that have thrice defied him_

_Born as the seventh month dies_

_And the dark Lord will mark him as his equal_

_But he will have power the Dark Lord knows not_

_And either must die at the hands of the other_

_For neither can live while the other survives_

_The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord_

_Will be born as the seventh month dies._

Harry Potter often thought about those words, spoken so long ago by the late Sibyll Trelawney, and when he did he could not help but close his eyes and remember. Oh it was true that when he had first met her he had thought her nothing but on old fraud and had had little more than unpleasant thoughts of her throughout the remainder of his school years but, looking back on it now, he supposed he owed a great deal to the old witch. Sighing, Harry wished for the thousandth time that he could turn back the clock and fix all of this before it had even begun. Knowing what he did now he was sure that if he could just go back things would be different. Hell, if he couldn't make it back to the beginning, if he could just make it back to even his sixth year, if he could just speak to Dumbledore one more time; Harry was sure that then things would be different.

But he couldn't go back and it was useless to wish for it no matter how desperately he longed for it to be possible. The Second War against Voldemort was quickly approaching its twenty-fourth year and the resistance was slowly being eaten away as the Dark Lord killed more and more of its members. There were people alive in the world now that had known nothing but conflict and strife for all of their lives and for that, Harry vowed to continue fighting until the job was done and Voldemort had been vanquished once and for all; his evil gone forever. It would not be easy, it _wasn't_ easy. It's amazing what you begin to miss when you've lost everything. Harry never thought he'd miss homework or detentions but he did. He missed them because of their innocence. Ever since the Order had lost the Battle of Hogwarts, the world had lost all traces of her virtue. All her light and goodness were gone; nearly extinguished. Where once the resistance had been a raging fire, it was now no more than a flickering candle in a turbulent and unforgiving wind.

Harry could remember sitting around a table in some rank old house that the order was using for a headquarters after the battle and thinking that it was all over, that there was no way to win after losing Hogwarts. If not for the support of Ron, Hermione and Ginny, Harry knew without a doubt that he would have given up. They had pulled him through then and it was them that kept him trudging on now. He couldn't fail them, wouldn't fail them. He had to go on fighting for them, for the world, but most importantly he had to go on fighting for _her_.

Lily Claire Potter had been born on her father's 27th birthday a little over sixteen years ago. She'd been named after her grandmother who, Harry'd found out, had also been Lily Claire Potter at the time of her death. Like her namesake, Lily had emerald eyes and dark, almost blood-red hair. She'd also inherited her grandmother's magical talent for which Harry was extremely grateful. Magic, to Lily, came easily almost effortlessly. Moody had once told him that he'd only ever known of two other individuals that had had as much talent from so early on and, when asked, Harry had gotten the names from the war battered old wizard: Albus Dumbledore and Tom Riddle. Harry hadn't been too thrilled about the latter but hearing his, at the time, three year old daughter compared to Dumbledore had made his day; it still did whenever he thought about it. It was a pity that she'd never get to go to Hogwarts.

Ever since the battle, Voldemort had re-invented the school and used it to corrupt the minds of its students so that they believed the Ministry – who as an entity was nothing more than a puppet with Voldemort pulling the strings – was the wizarding world's savior and that Harry, and all those that supported him, were out to bring it down. Of course, that part was true; Harry would've probably given his left arm to take the Ministry down but not because he didn't want them to fight Voldemort but because, in all reality, the Ministry _was_ Voldemort. Each year more and more radical legislation was passed giving more power to the Ministry and taking away all of the power from the people it was supposed to be serving. Hermione had once ranted about how Hitler's Nazi party had done the same thing and how Hogwarts had been turned into Hitler's youth. Harry had gotten the reference having studied the subject in school before finding out that he was a wizard; the analogy had been lost on everyone else.

As it was, the inner circle of the Order – who, like Harry, had all been in hiding since the Battle of Hogwarts, operating in secret and with as much discretion as possible – had come up with an alternative method of schooling the next generation. Hermione, Moody, Lupin and anyone else that felt so inclined had been asked to take up the mantle of teacher so that their children could have the tools they'd need to survive in the new, Voldemort ordered world. Harry's son, James, had been one of the first students of this new program before he'd been killed. Lily attended classes with her cousins, Alice Longbottom, Teddy Lupin and the Scamander twins.

And damn were those kids scary.

When one grew up in a war, cold or otherwise, one had to learn how to fight. Schooling began as soon as you showed your first signs of magic. In Lily's case she'd been three and she'd accioed her favorite toy to her when Ginny had refused to give it to her. Hugo and Rose – Hermione and Ron's two children – had been five and six respectively; Alice – Neville and Hannah's daughter – had been seven; the twins, Lorcan and Lysander, were Luna and Rolf's sons and had both shown their first signs of magic nearly as early as Lily at four; Teddy had been born a metamorphmagus but his parents asked to wait until he was five before he started. All in all, as far as Harry was concerned, the seven teenagers ranging in age from fourteen to nineteen could duel better than most aurors, had amazing reflexes and could unarm you eight different ways with or without a wand. It was all out of necessity that they were trained this way and Harry secretly hoped they never actually saw combat but he knew, even in his mind, that that was one wish that would never come true.

Still, he could always cross his fingers and pray. Merlin only knew he did each night before he went to bed. _Please, God, don't let anything happen to Lily. Please, please, don't let anything happen to _any_ of them…_

Shuddering another sigh, Harry pushed at his thoughts until they reverted back to the prophecy.

_Neither can live will the other survives…_

Harry played those words in his head over and over again as he drifted off to sleep next to Ginny.

~xXx~

"Again!"

Lily sighed in annoyance and brought her wand up for what had to be the twelfth time. She hated Moody, she really did. The grizzled old auror was a slave driver of a teacher who never let anyone have any rest until the whole class had mastered whatever spell it was that they were supposed to be learning at the moment. Right now, they were practicing silent deflective charms and Lily had already mastered all of them some three months ago but, since not all of her peers had as well, she was stuck doing the same thing over and over again until everyone else caught up.

It irritated her.

"Not everyone is as gifted as you are, Lils," her cousin, Hugo, whispered aside to her, catching the look on her face. "Some of us actually have to try before we get things."

Lily tried and failed to look affronted. "I have to try."

To her right Teddy, whose hair was bright blue today, snorted. "Yeah right, since when?"

Lily opened her mouth.

"Potter, Weasley, Lupin! Unless you lot have managed to master today's objective I see no reason why you should be talking!"

Abashedly, the two boys faced front and went back to their practice. Lily, on the other hand, crossed her arms and stubbornly refused to back down. Five seconds later, she found herself face to face with one Mad-Eye Moody which would've terrified anyone else but which didn't have the same effect on her. Lily had the nasty habit of being fearless when she really oughtn't be. Her Aunt Hermione – the sort of unofficial Headmistress of the Order's training school – blamed both her parents for this stating that any child of a Potter and a Weasley was doomed from the start to be stubborn and headstrong no matter what the prevailing conditions. This was one of those times when Lily knew she should be backing down but couldn't. She was tired of doing the same thing repeatedly and she was bored.

Moody glared at her. "Why aren't you practicing, Potter?" he demanded, his magical eyes whizzing around manically. "If a death eater where to attack you –"

"Then I'd not waste time with stupid non-verbal counter spells, I'd just kill them," Lily answered hotly. "Honestly, you're constantly saying how we need to fight like they do well _they_ wouldn't waste their time throwing spells at us that these counter spells could block. The first thing they'd do is throw _Avada_ at us and if we ducked that then they'd move on to other sort of dark magic. That's what we _should_ be learning how to block. Not this."

The elder wizard regarded her intensely, his magic eye whizzing around in his socket like a drunken pixy. "You think that do you, Missy?" he said after a while. Lily held up her chin and refused to back down; out of the corner of her eye she saw Hugo and Teddy shaking their heads as if to beg her to let it go.

She didn't. "Yes," she said crisply. "I do."

Moody let out a bark of laughter and then began waving his arms around, gesturing for the assembled students to move back. "Right then," he turned to face her and took out his wand. Leveling it at her he said, "A demonstration then."

There was a pause in which Lily found herself gripping her wand tighter in preparation before Moody bellowed out across the courtyard, _"Reducto Imperviatum!"_

Lily ducked, spinning out of the spell's range before coming back up in a fighting position inwardly cursing herself for her own pigheadedness. She should've backed down, she should've let it go but she hadn't and now she'd goaded Moody into an all-out duel. It wasn't the first time – she'd done the same thing a year or so ago and had ended up in the infirmary for a week – but this time, Lily vowed inwardly, this time would be different. Gathering her magic about her, she swished her wand through the air and cast a silent _Incidio_ jinx. Red hot flames shot out of the tip of her wand in a sweeping arch and sped towards Moody.

The old auror barely managed to step out of the way, no doubt caught off guard by her use of a silent spell, before he readied himself again and fired his own non-verbal hex.

Lily blocked it with a well-chosen Protango Maxima. The curse bounced off her shield and went spiraling off to the right leaving Teddy to literally dive out of the way.

"Bloody hell!" the blue haired wizard yelled as the spell whizzed over his head. "Not again!"

"Alice, go get Uncle Harry!" Rose yelled over the din of battle. "Now, hurry, go!"

Alice darted off while the others scrambled a safe distance away before turning back to watch the volley of hexes now flying back and forth across the courtyard. Both combatants were in their element and, true to her argument, neither Lily nor Moody were using any mild jinxes. Nope, because Lily had brought it up Moody was trying to teach her a lesson as he cast dark spell after dark spell in her direction all of which she either blocked or ducked. There was no contesting the fact that Lily knew what she was doing in a duel but what _was_ surprising were the equally dark curses that she was flinging back.

"_Sectumsempra__ Verocos!"_ Lily's voice screamed out across the courtyard, the eyes of all observers present going wide in disbelief and shock.

"Merlin's Balls, is she mad!?" Lorcan exclaimed, shocked. "That's a black magic hex that is. Where in the nine hells did she learn that!?"

"Where does Lily learn most of the things she's not supposed to know?" Teddy asked sardonically.

Rose muttered a curse under her breath. "Better hope Uncle Harry doesn't find out that Malfoy is teaching his precious angel the dark arts."

"I think he kinda knows," Teddy whispered back. "Last year at Christmas I heard him go off at Malfoy for telling her what a vagiserious charm is."

The Weasley siblings felt their faces go simultaneously red. "Ah…"

A resounding boom from behind them returned their collective attentions back to the duel; their musing put temporarily to the side. Moody's latest spell, a bombardment charm, was currently pounding away at Lily's raised shield charm and it was clear to everyone watching that her shield was beginning to crack. At the last moment, Lily dropped her shield and dove out of the way, coming up in a ready position just as Moody screamed an unforgivable at her.

It was the most effective way to end a fight and while nobody had ever used the killing curse to do so, _Imperio_ and _Crucio_ were both fair game. Everyone watching expected Lily to just move out of the way but instead, with a look of sheer determination on her face, she got a good grip on her wand, brought it up in front of her and screamed:

"_PATRONUM MAXIMUS!"_

There had been a theory made quite a while back by a batty old wizard that an augmented patronus charm might be able to block an unforgivable. Hermione had experimented with it for years after the Battle of Hogwarts but had never gotten it to work. Therefore it was a surprise to everyone when a silvery, translucent serpent erupted from the tip of Lily's wand, coiled up protectively in front of her and then lunged forwards to swallow Moody's _Crucio_ seconds before it could hit her. The unforgivable vanished and Lily, sensing that she'd won, slowly albeit cautiously lowered her wand.

"Did I pass?" she asked, her gaze leveled intently on the surprised ex-auror.

Moody blinked twice and opened his mouth as to answer her before he closed it realizing that he really had nothing to say. "Er…."

"_WHAT IN MERLIN'S NAME IS COING ON!?"_

Everyone except Lily cringed. Alice was back and, just like they all knew he would be, Harry Potter and both Ron and Hermione Weasley looked anything but happy. Turning the six remaining students plus one still stunned Mad-Eye Moody espied the approaching trio with trepidation, everyone expect Lily and Moody hastening to explain.

"Well-"

"Ummm-"

"You see-"

"Lily -"

"That is enough all of you!" Hermione's stern rebuke cut them all off. Casting a quick glance around the destroyed courtyard, the former Miss Granger fixed Mad-Eye with a penetrating stare and demanded to know what had happened.

"The courtyard is _completely_ destroyed!" she railed angrily, glancing alternatingly between the grizzled ex-auror, Lily and everyone else. "_What_ have we told you about dueling the students!?"

Moody tried to argue. "She started it!"

But Hermione wouldn't have it. "And you should have ended it, Alastor you are the teacher and she the student. We should not have to tell you this."

Moody looked at the ground. "We might have'ta revise our thinking on that score, Weasley."

Hermione frowned, confused. "What do you mean?"

Since Moody was still more or less in shock, Hugo turned towards his Mum, Dad and Uncle Harry and said, "Lily blocked his _Crucio_."

All three of the former Gryffindor's eyebrows rose nearly to their hairlines. "Lily did _what_!?" the three of them exclaimed.

"She blocked Professor Moody's unforgivable," Rose said, a frown crossing her round face. She turned and glared at her cousin, "And I would love to know how she did it considering that nobody's ever gotten that spell to work before. My mum couldn't do it!"

Lily's green eyes narrowed to virtual slits. "Just because your mother can't do something doesn't mean that nobody else can," she threw a glance towards her aunt, "No offense Aunt Hermione," her eyes returned to Rose. "She's not all powerful."

Rose sneered. "She's more powerful then you!"

"She is n-"

"Enough, both of you!" Hermione shouted, effectively ending the argument. It was an old argument. Lily was gifted, there was just no other way to put it and her daughter was often peeved by the fact that magic came so easily to her cousin. There was no denying the fact that out of all of Harry's inner circle, Hermione knew about more kinds of magic than anyone else so, in Rose's mind, that meant that her mother was the most powerful and while Hermione was flattered that her child thought so much of her she also knew that it simply wasn't true. If Hermione had to pick a most powerful Order member she'd probably pick Malfoy with Ginny coming in at a close second. If her son was to be believed and Lily really _had_ managed to block an unforgivable then her niece would be the third.

"But Mum -"

"No," Ron interrupted, fixing his daughter with a look. "Rose, darling, I love that you think so highly of your mother – Lord knows I do – but Lily's right. Just because your mum can't do it doesn't mean it can't be done."

"Well, then it's a fluke then," Rose continued to protest, unwilling to let this go. Lily always got everything, she didn't even have to try most of the time and it was really beginning to piss her off. "Bet she can't do it again."

Lily growled. "Bet I can."

Rose rounded on her. "Bet you -"

"Actually, that's probably a good idea," Harry said thoughtfully, eyes trained intently on his youngest child. "Would you be willing to show us how it's done Lily?"

The red head nodded. "Of course."

Harry held out a hand, indicating that he'd be the one to try and curse her. Lily jerked her head downwards in understanding and then backed an appropriate distance away before taking up her dueling stance. Harry hesitated for only a moment since, even he'd admit, it felt a little odd firing an unforgivable at his own child but he knew that if she couldn't block it she'd just dodge out of the way. It was actually surprisingly easy to duck an unforgivable.

"_Crucio!"_

The angry red jet of light left the end of Harry's wand and went screaming across the courtyard towards Lily who, as she'd done before, gripped her wand tightly before shouting out determinedly, "_PATRONUM MAXIMUS!"_

Just as before, the silvery transparent snake that was Lily's patronus erupted from her wand tip and lunged forwards, opening its mouth and swallowing the curse in one gulp. The red light vanished and the snake, after coiling and uncoiling twice, dissipated into nothingness. Lily lowered her wand.

Rose dropped her eyes to the ground and refused to look up; everyone else just stared. It was just as impressive a second time as it had been the first.

"Obviously it wasn't a fluke," Lysander broke the silence. He turned towards his twin, "Pick your jaw up, you look like a drowning grindylow."

His brother glared at him. "Well excuse me," Lorcan exclaimed hotly, "It's not every day you see somebody block and unforgivable. _Twice_!"

The assembled persons all nodded their heads in vigorous agreement. Hermione had a thoughtful look on her face.

Ron knew that look all too well. "Oh know," he whispered frantically, the teenagers, Moody and Harry all looked at him. "Harry, she's got that look on her face!"

Harry snorted. "That look, if you'll recall correctly, usually heralds something spectacular," then, with a shake of his head, he turned his gaze to his only daughter, "I think it's safe to say that given today's events, your attendance for lessons is no longer mandatory."

Lily smirked. Teddy and Hugo's mouths fell open.

"What!?" her cousin screamed.

Teddy was quick to second the sentiment. "No fair! I thought you said that we all had to train until we were twenty?"

The boy who lived shot his godson a pointed look. "Can _you_ block an unforgivable?"

Teddy's expression fell. "No."

Harry tried to pacify him. "Oh, it's not so terrible," he turned back to Lily, "Since you no longer need training, you get to help Hermione with research and trying to re-create your new spell."

Suddenly Lily's achievement didn't seem all that awesome. She hated doing research, especially if it was under the ever watchful eye of her aunt. "Yay," she replied drolly.

Harry snickered. "Yes, yay," he sighed. "Well, I think that's enough lessons for one day, for everyone. Let's pack it up and go see what Ginny and Luna came up with for dinner."

The twins looked at each other. "If its stew again I'm gonna go on strike," Lorcan exclaimed as the courtyard slowly emptied and he and his brother fell into step beside Lily and Hugo. "There's only so much wild hippogriff I can stomach."

Hugo frowned. "Really?" he questioned. "I like wild hippogriff."

"You'll eat anything," Lily said humorlessly, "I've seen you eat grass."

The twins snickered.

Hugo glared at the lot of them. "Hey, that was one time and it was a dare!"

Lysander snorted. "It doesn't matter, you still ate it. You chewed and everything."

"Oh shut up," Hugo spat at him, shoving his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans.

His companions laughed. Alice turned around and eyed them.

"What's so funny?"

"Hugo's eating habits," Lorcan replied as the group entered the dining hall of the old dilapidated castle they were staying in. They moved around a lot but this particular fortress had been their home now for over three years.

Alice grinned. "Yes, I can see why those'd be funny."

The lone Weasley glared at her. "What is it, pick on Hugo day?" he asked, irked. "What did I ever do to any of you?"

"You broke my arm when we were eight," Alice fired back.

"I did not! You fell off your broom."

"It was your fault, you pushed me."

"No I did -"

"Hugo, give it a rest, we were all there we all saw you do it," Lily reminded him.

The ginger haired wizard glared at her, crossed his arms and scowled.

Lysander and Lorcan were next. "You once gave us both polyjuice potion to make us look like you and then went around telling everyone we were triplets. As if we'd ever want to be brothers with you."

There was no venom in the twin's statement but Hugo glared at them anyway. "Okay, alright fine, I get it," he slipped into an empty chair at the end of the long dining room table and eagerly looked down at his plate. "Hey look! Stew!"

Lorcan grimaced and pushed his plate towards the now sadistically grinning Weasley. "Here, have mine."

Hugo eagerly scrapped the younger twin's helping onto his own plate before handing it back. "Thanks," he said before digging in.

Lily shook her head. "You are definitely Uncle Ron's son."

"As if there was ever any doubt," Alice muttered, taking a bite of her own food and then forcing herself to swallow. "He's Ronald Weasley in miniature."

Hugo looked at her. "Ew say tha lik icks a ba ing."

Alice frowned. "What, sorry? Didn't catch that. Finish chewing before you try and talk, you sound like you've gone and swallowed your tongue."

Lily and the twins snickered. "Now there's an interesting image," Lysander mused.

"Yeah, really," Lily agreed, taking a drink from her cup.

The other twin looked at her. "So," he started, "You looking forwards to spending some good ol' quality time with Hugo's mum?"

Lily opened her mouth.

"What's wrong with my mum?" Hugo demanded.

"Nothing," Lily replied, "It's just…I don't like doing research in groups. I'd rather just be left alone to do it myself."

"Anti-social," Lysander teased.

"Slytherin," Alice quipped, also teasing. "I swear Lily, if you ever were to go to Hogwarts you'd end up in the snake pit for sure."

The red haired girl plastered an affronted look on her face. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh don't pretend you're offended," Hugo called her out. "Everyone knows that except for your eyes and the fact that you're _way_ to stubborn for you own good, you're more like your godfather then your dad. I mean, if we died your hair blonde I bet you could even pass as his what with your predisposition to glare at anything that moves and pisses you off."

Lily scowled at him. "That's not funny."

Lorcan snorted. "Oh but it is, and the best part is, both your dad and Malfoy know it."

"They do not!"

Lysander gave her a patronizing stare. "Oh really?" he questioned before leaning back and yelling towards the head of the table, "Hey Uncle Harry!"

Lily's eyes went wide. "What. Are. You. _Doing_!?"

"Yes, Lysander?" Harry called back, one eyebrow raised as he looked at his honorary nephew.

The elder twin grinned evilly. "True or false, if – humph!" he was cut off as Lily took out her wand and swished it angrily in his direction. He tried to swallow; it was like his mouth was full of cotton. He couldn't speak. "Hummnnnmerrrne-ahhhh!"

Lily looked at her father. "Ignore him, he's done talking," she said, stowing her wand away and going back to her food.

At the head of the table, Harry shook his head and snickered. "She's your daughter," he said to Ginny who turned towards her husband and grinned proudly.

"You bet she is."

Ron and Hermione exchanged knowing glances and smiled, all turning to watch the drama unfold at the other end of the table.

By this time, Lysander had taken out his own wand and un-hexed himself. He was now glaring hotly at Lily. "You!" he yelled at her, "You!"

"Me, me," the witch mocked him before proceeding to stick her tongue out at him. "Nice comeback."

Lorcan and Hugo guffawed, casting each other mischievous grins. Watching Lysander and Lily have at each other was always prime entertainment. Always.

The elder Scamander twin crossed his arms and glared hotly at her in mock anger. "You just completely proved my point."

"I did not!"

"You did so," he argued, "I said something you didn't like and you jinxed me. Slytherin."

"I am not a Slytherin!" Lily protested.

"Lily," Alice entered the fray, "Your patronus is a snake."

"And your favorite color is green," Hugo added.

"And you know more hexes and curses then half our parents," Lorcan inserted, both twins, Hugo and Alice looked at one another before fixing Lily with a look and exclaiming in concert, "Slytherin!"

"Arrgghhh!" Lily cried, crossing her arms while glaring at her cousin and friends. She threw a look towards her parents. "Have you nothing to say?" she demanded.

Twenty years ago had anyone tried to argue that a child of his belonged in Slytherin house, Harry would've probably hexed you but, as it stood now, the association was no longer an insult so much as a point of contention. It was neither good nor was it entirely bad, it simply _was_. Not all Slytherins were evil, at least not entirely – Ron still argued that Malfoy was still technically an evil git even if we _was_ on their side – and not all of the other houses were full of saints. Pettigrew had been in Gryffindor and a particularly nasty Death Eater who had been in their year at Hogwarts was from Hufflepuff. True evil had no color, no house loyalty; it came in every hue and could dwell in sunlight just as easily as it could in shadow.

"As much as I know my sixteen year old self probably thinks I'm barmy for saying this, I really must say that in all reality, they're all probably right; if you were ever to get sorted, you'd probably end up in Slytherin," Harry informed his daughter.

Lily pouted.

"I blame the Git," Ron announced tersely, less able to let go of the old prejudices then Harry was. Of course it didn't help that he'd had five older brothers that'd made sure that 'all Slytherins are evil' had been drilled into his head since birth. He shot a look towards his sister who was seated across from him. "What in your right mind possessed you to make him Lily's godfather?"

Ginny glared at her brother. "The 'Git', really Ron?" she scowled, "You still call him that?"

Ron eyed her. "That's not answering my question," he reprimanded her before adding, "And he still calls me weasel so I can call him a git if I want to."

Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Luna all rolled their eyes. "Whatever you say."

For a moment, Ron puffed up looking pleased with himself but then, as his fellow's condescending tones caught on, he deflated and let out an indignant sounding, "Hey!"

The table dissolved into laughter that continued throughout the rest of the meal. When it was over and the dishes had been cleared away and washed, Lily stayed in the dining hall for a bit longer to play a game of wizarding chess with Ron before kissing both her parents and then going off to bed. She said goodnight to Hugo and the twins, ignored Rose completely and made sure to get the time she was to report for research in the morning from Aunt Hermione who was in the library immediately following dinner just like she always was. Knowing she had a full day of reading ahead of her, she forwent doing any before bed, crawled beneath her covers and was almost instantly asleep.

~xXx~

"So we have nothing."

Harry and Hermione looked at each other before turning to look back at Ron who, at the moment, looked more haggard and defeated then either the two of them had seen him in a long time. "It would appear that way," his wife said, reluctantly, her eyes roving over the scattered assortment of books, all of which had ceased to be useful quite some time ago. "I really don't know where else to look."

Harry sighed. The problem was that they were stuck; they'd been stuck for a long time. He, Hermione and Ron had spent the majority of what would have been their seventh year at Hogwarts searching for Voldemort's hourcruxes all of which they found, all but one. Apparently, somewhere along the way, Voldemort had managed to make one accidently. For the longest time the three of them had thought that it was Harry but a really complicated spell and an awful tasting potion had proved that theory to be wholly incorrect. None of them had ever been more happy to have been proven wrong but, unfortunately, this meant that they were completely out of ideas as to what the final hourcrux might actually be. Hermione _had_ managed to figure out that whatever they were looking for was actually the first hourcrux ever made but that didn't really help.

Unfortunately.

It had made them all look a lot harder into Voldemort's past though, in particular, the time before he'd become Lord Voldemort and was still just plain ol' Tom Riddle. So far, in twenty years of searching, they'd found exactly jack squat and were running out of places _to_ look. In fact, they'd just hit another dead end.

Harry was way past being annoyed and had moved on to being just downright pissed. "Everyone we ask, everywhere we look, there's never any information on Tom fucking Riddle, it's almost like he didn't exist."

"But we know he existed, Harry," Hermione said wearily, "Maybe we're not asking the right people."

"Or maybe Voldemort made sure that there'd be nothing to find," Ron suggested. "Think about it, he went through all the trouble of making a new name for himself and ditching the old one; maybe there's a reason nobody remembers Tom Riddle. Maybe there's nobody left _to_ remember him. I betcha Voldy went back and killed anyone who might've known him before he became the evil, almighty Dark Lord."

Harry made a face. "Now there's an idea we never thought of," he said drolly, "Doesn't help us though."

"It doesn't hurt us either, it's just maddeningly unhelpful," Hermione whispered, digging her fingers into her hair as she rested her elbows on the already groaning table. If they added one more book to it the whole thing might collapse.

"Where's Lily?" Harry asked, deciding that he needed a break from re-reading pages that he'd already read a thousand times before. "Did you stick her in the library?"

Hermione nodded. "I have her looking through all our old notes to see if we missed anything. She really does do better on her own."

"Slytherin," Ron murmured, echoing the sentiment from last night's dinner conversation. "Does it really not bother you much Harry? The twins are right; if her hair weren't red she'd make a damn convincing Malfoy."

Harry shrugged. "It's a bit hard to swallow at times but I usually get over it."

"You usually get over what?"

The three of them looked up, Ron's face morphed into a scowl.

"Git."

"Weasel."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Oh, honestly."

Harry smirked and turned to face his former rival. "Malfoy," he acknowledged, "Tell me you have something."

Draco stepped the rest of the way into the room. "First, what's this that you've supposedly gotten over Potter?" the blond wizard smirked. "You're perchance to be painfully annoying maybe?"

"Ha-ha," Harry responded tonelessly, hitting his former nemesis with a resentful glare. "And what I've gotten over is the fact that if she ever got the chance, my daughter would most likely end up being a Slytherin."

Draco grinned. "That is true," he said with pride before taking a deep breath so that he could proceed, "Now, in answer to your question: yes, I have something,"

The scowl vanished from Ron's face as he perked up. "Finally, we're getting somewhere," his eyes narrowed as he aimed them at the pale wizard, "We _are_ getting somewhere aren't we?"

Malfoy looked contrite. "Yes and no, Weasley."

Ron glared at him. "What's that supposed to mean!?"

Harry had to admit, he kinda had to agree with Ron. "Yes, Malfoy, what _is_ that supposed to mean?"

Draco sighed. "It means that I have something but I'm afraid it's not going to be very useful, at least not right away."

"Okay," Hermione said, "What is it and when do you think it _will_ be useful?"

The blond carefully eyed the three of them. "McGonagall wants to talk to you, she says it's important. She didn't say why; she just gave me the message to give to you."

The trio frowned. "That's it?" they chorused.

Malfoy nodded. "Yes, that's it."

Hermione took a deep breath. "Well, is she coming to us or do we have to go to her?"

"You have to go to her," came the reply, "As soon as possible she said."

"Where is she?" Harry asked.

"Hogwarts."

"Hog – is she insane!?" Ron bellowed. "We can't go to Hogwarts, Snape's still headmaster; the place is swarming with dementors and Harry tracking charms. Has she lost her bloody mind?"

Draco glared at him. "That old bat is saner then you weasel," he said tersely, crossing his arms, "And anyway, given how important she seems to think this is, I'm thinking you should risk it. You know she wouldn't ask if it wasn't something huge."

Ron didn't look convinced but both Harry and Hermione shared a look. "Harry," Hermione began, "What if it's -"

"I know," he said, turning to Malfoy. "Can you get a message back to her?"

"I can."

"Good," said Harry, "Tell her we'll be there."

With a nod to show that he would do as requested, Draco took to leaning against the wall as he regarded the golden trio. "So," he started, "What all have I missed?"

"Recently or in life?"

Malfoy glared at Ron. "Very funny weasel," he scowled and took to looking directly at Harry, "How's Lily?"

Harry smirked. "Funny you should mention her," he said.

Draco frowned. "And why is that?"

Hermione explained. "Yesterday she goaded Mad-Eye into a duel – "

"Not the first time," Malfoy mumbled, Hermione kept talking.

"– where she proceeded use very dark magic and then went on to block an unforgivable."

Draco felt both his eyes go wide. "She did _what!?_"

"That was our reaction too," Harry said, gaining immense enjoyment out of the bewildered look on the former Slytherin's face. "Rose thought it might be a fluke so we had her do it again. I fired Crucio at her and she blocked it with an augmented patronus just like Corcoran theorized. It was impressive."

"I'll bet," Malfoy agreed, "Anything else interesting happen while I've been off risking my life for you sorry lot?"

Ron glared hotly at him. "Risking your life my arse, your dad's the Minister of bloody magic; you're treated more like a prince now then you were when we were in school."

"We must each do our part," Draco smirked before he pushed himself off the wall and started for the door. "Well, I must be off. I'll give McGonagall your message and come back whenever I have something else useful."

"Later Malfoy," Harry called as Draco turned and walked out the door. They heard a faint pop as he appeared and then Harry was looking back at Hermione. "I'm going to go check on my daughter, if that's alright with you."

"She'll be pissed that the Git was here and didn't say 'hi'," Ron muttered as he pulled a book towards him across the table and started reading where he'd left off. "She's unnaturally fond of him for a Weasley; it's not right."

His wife elbowed him in the ribs. "He's her _godfather_ Ron," she hissed.

Ron shrugged. "Yeah, remind me to ask Ginny why she did that again when I get the chance."

"She never answers you."

"Maybe she will this time."

"Well aren't you optimistic."

"I'm always optimistic, I'm the bloody king of optimism, just ask my mother."

"You are not, you…"

Leaving Hermione and Ron to their bickering, Harry took his leave and headed towards the library.

~xXx~

As previously discussed, Hogwarts had undergone some radical changes since the battle that had taken place on her grounds nearly twenty years ago. For starters the houses had been dissolved, the quidditch stadium had never been rebuilt and students had to pass a blood purity test before they were allowed entrance. Purebloods and half-bloods only, no muggleborns; Hermione had screamed indignantly when that particular piece of legislation had passed. Umbridge was, unfortunately, still very much in power and her crusade to purify the wizarding world was so in sync with Voldemort's rhetoric that Harry was often confused as to why she _wasn't_ a Death Eater. Still, Hogwarts had changed and not for the better.

The curriculum was almost all theory now with very little if any practical application and almost no practicing. The idea, Harry was sure, was to make the general populous so dependent on the Ministry for every little thing, not just defense, that no one would dare try and take them down for fear of losing access to what little magic the average wizard still had access too. The only ones for whom nothing had changed were the very old, very wealthy pureblood houses. In short, all the Slytherins. Ron wasn't wrong when he'd said that Draco lived like a prince. Except for the risking his life by spying on Voldemort and the Death Eaters part, Harry's old school rival had a much easier life now then he had had before the war.

Which is why, the day after his visit, when Malfoy send Harry a coded letter explaining that he was to come to Hogwarts alone, the boy who lived didn't wonder how Draco had managed to avoid the monitoring spells that tracked everything from who used what spell to do what and when to who was talking to who and by what means. There was very little privacy anymore in the new Ministry's regime and nearly everybody was almost as terrified of their government as they were of what their government was supposedly protecting them from. All in all, Harry was often surprised more people hadn't figured out yet what was going on; Hermione really wasn't that far off with her Nazi analogy.

She also wasn't happy when her best friend told her he'd be making the trip to Hogwarts alone but, in the end, Harry was able to convince her and Ron that it was best in this circumstance to follow Malfoy's instructions. It was difficult, and there had been a lot of yelling, but in the end he'd managed it so that now he and he alone was standing in front of Professor McGonagall's desk while she looked at him feeling very much as though he were an erstwhile school boy once again.

The old witch eyed him over the top of her glasses. "Oh do sit down, Potter," she said primly, indicating a tray set of the edge of her desk, "Have a biscuit."

Harry took one and sat while resisting the urge to fidget nervously. "So, er, how've you been Professor?"

"Minerva, please," McGonagall corrected, "I've not been your professor for many years now and the fact that you insist on calling me that every time you see me just makes me feel old."

Harry resisted the urge to snort. At almost a hundred, Minerva McGonagall was getting on in years even so far as witches and wizards were concerned. Still, he thought he might humor his old head of house. "How've you been then, Minerva?"

The witch smiled although it looked very forced. There really was very little to smile about these days especially here. "As well as can be expected."

"Why am I here?"

McGonagall sighed. "In a moment, I will tell you, I just...we are waiting for another to join us."

He frowned. "Who?"

The door to the office opened and Harry turned just in time to see a flash of blond slip through the door and come round the desk. "Malfoy."

Draco smirked. "Well hello Potter," he greeted with false cheer, "This must be my lucky week; I've seen you twice in all of five days. That's as much as I've seen you since Hogwarts."

Harry glared at him and opened his mouth but McGonagall cut him off.

"Now enough of that, the both of you. If you'll take a seat, Mr. Malfoy, we may begin," Draco sat and Minerva continued, "What I've got to say I've waited seventy years to tell anyone so please, I'm tired of waiting. I want it over with." With that statement, she knew she had both wizards' attentions hooked. Without taking her eyes from theirs, she reached down and opened a draw in her desk, pulled out what was kept there, and held it out towards both Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy.

They both eyed her speculatively as if they had no idea how this was supposed to help.

"Open it," the old witch beseeched them before leaning back in her chair to watch them as they did.

Being the first to reach for the book which looked like an album of some kind, Harry picked it up and then cracked it open holding it up and at an angle so that Malfoy was able to see. He then turned his attention to the album's contents. Green eyes searching the title page, they came across a familiar script which had been used to write the words: _Property of Horace Slughorn, 1940 – 1945._

Harry's eyes widened as his brain swirled with thoughts of what this might mean, of what could possibly be contained within the next several pages. Frantically he became turning the leafs in the old photo album in search of the familiar dark hair and piercing dark eyes of the boy that would be Voldemort. Beside him, he could sense Malfoy's confusion. There were very few who knew about or remembered the young, brilliant wizard that had gone by the name Tom Riddle and, more importantly, there were fewer still who knew what he had become. As part of Harry's inner circle Draco knew the name, knew that it was the name that Voldemort had been born under but the only face of the Dark Lord he knew was the one Voldemort currently sported; distorted and disfigured as it was.

An image caught Harry's eye and his manic page flipping stopped; his eyes glaring with hatred as they looked down on the person smiling winningly up at them from the page.

Still beyond confused, Malfoy leaned forwards to inspect the photograph wondering as he did what was so horrible about that his friend seemed to loath the very sight of it. "It's a Slug Club meeting," he observed with a frown. "Potter," he glanced sideways at him, "What on in Merlin's name is – "

"It's him," Harry replied, finger pointing to the Riddle in the picture, "Tom Riddle."

Draco's eyes went wide. "_That's_ the Dark Lord!?" he yelled, yanking the album away from Potter so that he could get a better look. Once he'd done so he began turning pages at random looking for more images of the teenaged Voldemort. "He looks so normal, so benign," Draco was muttering under his breath, "He's practically…there's no way anybody would be able to connect this version to the ones that out there now trying to take over the – oh bloody fucking hell…"

"What?" Harry asked, alarmed by Malfoy's rather loud, rather sudden steam of expletives. Reaching out to pull the book more towards him so that he could see, Harry starting looking for what could've possibly caused Malfoy's outburst. "What's so…" he started to ask but then he froze. There, in a photograph that took up nearly the whole page, was a large group of witches and wizards all in dress robes and all obviously having a good time. It was another Slug Club meet from the looks of it and, just like in the last picture, Tom Riddle could be seen standing with a certain stiffness about him that made him stand out despite how normal he appeared to be. What was different about this picture was that the practiced smile he normally wore, the one that was usually confined to just the corners of his mouth; in _this_ image _that_ smile reached all the way up into his eyes. It was a real smile, a true smile, a smile directed not at the person taking the picture but towards the witch who stood looking up at him from his side.

Harry felt his blood run cold. The witch standing next to him was Lily.

A weak, "How?" was all he could manage as he continued to stare at the picture in disbelief. To his right, a quick glance at Malfoy reveled the wizard to be suffering under much the same aliment. This, this was impossible.

"Time, Mr. Potter," Minerva spoke shattering the stillness as together as one, both wizards' eyes continued to traced over the image that had been captured on that faithful day; a memory of a moment that was forever frozen in time, "Is a tricky thing. What was done cannot be undone; but what _will_ be done may yet save us all."

Harry tore his gaze away from the album's pages, completely lost. "What?"

McGonagall indulged him with a terse smile. "The answer lies in time, Harry. You could not kill him because you did not yet have the final piece," the old witch stood and came around the side of her desk, stopping to stand over her former students, "Albus, God rest him, knew many, many things but I'm afraid that he missed Lily's significance in Tom Riddle's life until it was almost too late."

He heard the words but it took a while for them to sink in. Slowly Harry looked up. "This is Lily," he said, "My Lily, and…and _Voldemort!_"

"She was the only one that ever understood him, the closest thing he ever had to a real friend," the expression in Minerva's eyes was one of lament, "I would even go so far to say that he cared for her at least, as much as he could and in the only way he knew how."

With a sinking feeling beginning to well up from the pit of his stomach, Harry dared to ask, "And in what way was that?"

The old witch folded her hands in front of her and took another breath. "He trusted her. He told Lily many things, things that he'd never told another living soul. Things that you will need to know if you want to defeat him."

And Harry understood. "Lily knows where the last hourcrux is."

Draco frowned. "No, she doesn't yet…" he said causing both former Gryffindors to trade looks with him. "But she will," he looked at McGonagall and locked eyes with his former teacher, "You want us to send her back in time."

Minerva nodded. "Yes."

Harry stood, angrily, allowing the photo album to fall to the floor with a soft thump. "You want me to send my daughter back in time so that she can get in with Tom Riddle and steal a part of his soul?" he looked at Malfoy who looked about as keen on the plan as he did. "Fuck that! I'd rather d -"

"Everyone will die if you sit here and do nothing!" Minerva hissed at him. "You need that last piece, he can't be killed otherwise."

"What if she doesn't come back?" Harry protested. "What if I send her back and then I never see her again!"

Minerva sighed. "She does come back, Potter, trust in that."

"How do you know!?"

"Because Lily Claire first appeared at Hogwarts on January 4th, 1944 and she disappeared on November 6th 1947 nearly four years later," the witch held his gaze. "She will come back to you Potter but if you have any hope of saving the future, her future, and this world then you must let her go."

Harry opened his mouth to let out a scathing retort but was cut short by Malfoy.

"Lily Claire?" the wizard breathed; surprise evident in every single one of his features.

The black haired wizard rounded on him. "What are you going on about?" he demanded hotly and with confusion.

But Draco ignored him. Instead, the former Slytherin's eyes had glazed over and he was staring fixedly at Minerva McGonagall. "Lily is – she's…really?"

Minerva inclined her head. "Yes," she confirmed. "When she arrived in the past, using Potter as a last name would have caused problems so Xavier wisely decided to use her middle name as her surname and thus, Lily Claire came to be. Together with Albus he protected her, sheltered her and gave her a reason for knowing what she knows; how to duel, how to fight, how not to hem a robe or tidy a kitchen."

Harry frowned. "I'm confused," he started, "What -"

"She'll be fine, Potter," Draco informed him, returning his attention to the baffled boy who lived. "Send her back, we have to. She'll be fine."

"I don't believe you."

Draco looked up. "Potter, trust me, she'll be fine. Ask any witch or wizard over eighty to tell you about Lily Claire and you'll get an earful or better yet, look her up. She was the first witch to be accepted into the auror training program. Send her back, Potter. We need that last piece and she's the only one that can get it."

Harry sighed. Despite what he was hearing, he was still reluctant. Lily was, after all, his little girl. He'd already lost James; he couldn't bare it if he lost Lily as well.

"I…"

"She will come back," Minerva insisted, "You will see her again. It won't be goodbye forever."

It was inevitable and Harry knew it. "What do I tell her?" he asked, defeat and resignation ringing in his voice.

"Tell her nothing," Minerva instructed, reaching back into the drawer that she'd kept the photo album in and pulling from it a small, plain, black box. She handed it to Potter. "Riddle would know if she were to come to him with a mission, but if she comes to him with nothing, only knowing that there _is_ something she must accomplish in order to come home…"

"Then there's no risk to the timeline," Harry concluded, lifting the lid on the black box just enough so that he could see the silver pendent nestled within; the sand in its hourglass a deep emerald. He inhaled sharply. This was real, this was it. There was no going back.

At least not for him.

"When she completes her task, when she has the last piece," Draco was trying to sort it all out in his head, "The timeturner will send her back?"

"Yes," Minerva replied. "Once she completes her task, a task which she must not know, then and only then will she be returned to us."

"Which'll take nearly four years," Harry concluded unhappily, not liking the idea of her being gone for that long.

"Time will move more quickly for us," McGonagall explained. "For Lily it will be almost four years, for us it will be considerably less; only months," she fixed Harry with a look. "You will do it, yes?"

Harry nodded. "Yes, I'll…I'll send her back," he swallowed, "I have to. It-it's the only way."

Minerva closed her eyes. "Then be gone with you," she said, opening them again to look at her former student, both of them. "Take that and give it to Lily, tonight."

"What will she do when she gets there, to the past I mean?" Draco asked. "Who does she go looking for, Dumbledore?"

"Yes," Minerva said, nodding towards the box Potter was now clutching tightly in his hands as though his life depended on it. "There's a note in the box, under the turner. The box itself is a portkey which will activate upon her arrival in 1943. It will take her to Albus."

Harry frowned. "I thought you said he didn't know about her? If this'll take her to him won't he know why she's there?"

"Ah, no," McGonagall lamented. "The note only explains the bare minimum, Albus wrote it that way himself so as to not alert his former self in any way that might damage the timeline. That is key, Potter, nothing can happen that hasn't already happened and so, when she finds Albus, he will be told only what is absolutely needed."

"Brilliant," Harry muttered, turning to Malfoy, "Well, I guess this is it," he looked towards his old professor one more time before taking his leave "Cross your fingers," and with a pop he was gone.

Draco followed soon after only he went out the door. When she was alone in her officer once more, Minerva let out a sigh and sat heavily down in her chair behind her desk. "I told them, Albus," she whispered to herself, "I told them, now it is up to her."

The thought made the old witch smile.

~xXx~

Lily was beyond suspicious. Her father had woken her up in the middle of the night and told her to get dressed and follow him which she'd done only to be let out of the castle and out onto the wild moor that surrounded the crumbling fortress. Not only was she confused but her father was acting weird, really weird. He was holding her hand like he'd done when she was a girl and alternatingly he would look back at her and either smile longingly or frown regretfully. Truly, Lily had no idea what was going on.

"Dad?" she finally questioned when she could no longer stand the awkward, tense silence, "What's going on?"

Harry stopped walking and turned to look at his daughter, still holding her hand. "I love you, Lily, you know that don't you?" he asked, lifting his other hand to tilt her chin up so that her matching emerald eyes were forced to meet his. "Tell me you know that."

Lily swallowed and looked back at her father in worry. "Of course I know that," she told him, concern creeping into her stomach. Her feet were cold and wet and she was standing out in the middle of a wild moor, in the dark while her father asked her if she knew he loved her. What in Merlin's name was going on?

"Good," Harry said releasing her hand and taking a step back. He kept his eyes trained on hers and held them. "You know that you've been training for war, for over thirteen years now I've been preparing you, teaching you. I've always hoped, foolishly I know, that you'd never have to fight but now…" he trailed off, taking a deep breath to steady himself. Gods, he didn't know how to do this. He didn't know how to send his baby away.

Her concern was mounting now but so was her anticipation. Something was about to happen, something big and whatever it was it was something that she could see her father was very reluctant to do. That could only mean that it was important. Scale tipping important. Important like they were never going to have another chance like this again.

"Now?" she echoed, prompting her dad to finish telling her what he'd dragged her out here in the middle of the night to say.

Harry let out a deep, bone weary sigh. "Now the time has come where I can no longer protect you."

His daughter frowned. "Dad?" she asked, the anticipation she'd previously felt dissipating, caution replacing it. Caution and a yawning, unfathomable dread. There was pain in her father's eyes, so much pain. It made her fear whatever was about to come.

In place of an answer, Harry pulled the black box McGonagall had given him from his pocket and handed it to his daughter, his only surviving child. Once she was holding it, Harry proceeded to stuff his hands into his pockets and ball his fists, clenching them so hard he'd be surprised if his fingernails didn't draw blood.

Lily opened the box and frowned down at the tiny hourglass that lay nestled inside. Her gaze shifted upwards in confusion, her expression one of non-comprehension. "Daddy?"

Her voice was barely more than a whisper, if he hadn't seen her mouth move Harry couldn't have been sure that Lily had spoken at all. "Do you know what that is?" he asked her, nodding at the box.

She nodded. "It's a timeturner. Why…why are you giving it to me?"

"Because you need to go back," Harry told her, "Back in time. There's something, something we need and only you can get it. That necklace, the minute you place it around your neck and turn it, it will take you back to 1943. That is where your mission will start. Get what we need, the last piece and then once you have it the magic in the necklace will bring you forwards again. Do you understand?"

Lily stared at him. "Wh-, _no_!" she exclaimed. "I don't understand anything, you haven't told me anything. What is it that I'm supposed to get?"

"The last piece," her father replied.

"The last piece of what!?"

Harry looked at her sadly. "The last piece we need to win," Lily still looked confused and Harry could only shake his head. He hated doing this to her, putting her through this. It was the exact same thing that Dumbledore had always done to him; telling him just enough but never the whole truth. He'd hated it then and he hated doing it to his own daughter now. In fact, Harry hated everything about the whole situation but he knew that it couldn't be helped. They needed that last hourcrux: the future, _Lily's_ future, depended on it. It was one of those instances were Harry felt like he was damned no matter what he did.

Sensing that that was all the information she was going to get, Lily let out an angry hiss and took to looking at the dew covered ground. "Now what?" she asked dejectedly.

With a sigh, Harry reached forwards and took the box back and held it in one hand while he removed the timeturner necklace from it with the other. Closing the box and handing it back to her, he took a step forwards and carefully lowered the pendant around her neck. The hourglass came to rest over Lily's heart; Harry thought that was fitting.

"Now, my little Lily, you go," Harry began explaining. "The box is a portkey that will take you to Dumbledore once you arrive in the past. There's a note inside for him, explaining little more than I've just explained to you. Don't bother trying to read it," he eyed his daughter knowing that if she thought there was a way for her to get more information she'd all but jump at the chance, "It's charmed with a blood seal, unless your Albus Dumbledore the page will just appear blank to you."

Lily let out an audible clearly irritated huff. "Well what do I do when I get to 1943?" she asked. "What's so important about that year anyway? Why then?"

"You'll see," came her father's guarded and purposefully vague answer. "As for what you'll do, just be yourself. Don't worry about the timeline, there's nothing you can do to change what was, everything will happen exactly as it was meant to be."

"Is that really all you can tell me?" Lily asked darkly, a frown on her face. "You know mum's going to kill you when she finds out you let me go back in time."

Harry snorted. "Yes, I suspect your mother will be very, very angry, especially when I tell her why," he looked at Lily, took a step forwards and kissed her on her forehead. "Be safe," he told her, "And do your best, I know you won't disappoint me."

Lily's frown deepened as she felt her father's lips on her forehead one more time. "I love you," she heard him whisper against her skin but before she could say it back, her father flicked the hourglass with his wrist and set it to spin. Lily looked up and was just able to see her father's emerald eyes one last time before she felt a tug pull at her from the base of her spine and then the world around her began to spin. It spun and spun, faster and faster until suddenly it stopped and Lily's knees gave out. She crashed to the ground.

Looking up, she looked around and noticed that she was exactly where she had been standing before everything had gone sideways. The only difference was that her dad wasn't standing in front of her. Remembering about the box, Lily turned it over in her hand and waited for the portkey to activate.

Three seconds later Lily herself vanished from the moor and silence fell as, in the sky above, the clouds parted and the stars themselves seemed to twinkle just a little bit more brightly.

* * *

**A/N:** Reviews are the only way that fan-fiction writers get paid so put a quarter in my cup and make my day.


	2. What Was and Will Be

**A/N: **Here's chapter 2; I worked very hard on this, was very careful as I filled in all the major plot holes from the original version. Please let me know what you all think. Read, review and enjoy!

Cheers!

* * *

**Chapter Two: What Was and Will Be**

Born in 1881, Albus Dumbledore had lived long enough, seen enough and done enough that he was rarely if ever truly surprised. When the Falcon's won the World Cup in 1904 and then again several years later, he had been surprised but not overly stunned. When Horace had given him a bottle of 200-year-old firewhisky from his private stock last year for Christmas, Albus had been mildly and pleasantly surprised but, again, not altogether shocked. Having a sixteen year old witch suddenly portkey into his sitting room at half past two in the morning wearing rather odd looking garments and a timeturner around her neck, that one succeeded where all the others failed and for the first time in nearly three decades Albus Dumbledore was good and wholly floored.

It was a nice thought, knowing that there were things out there in the world that could still surprise him and, eventually, after staring at her for quite some time during which she stared back, the startled wizard recovered enough to remember how to speak.

"Greetings Miss?"

The question hung in the air limply but, rather than answer it, the young witch just reached into her dressing gown – at least he assumed it was a dressing gown of some type; it really didn't_ look_ like one – and pulled out a folded up bit of parchment. Extending it towards him the expression on her face told him that he was meant to read it. Taking it from her he opened it up and began to read:

_Dear My Younger Self,_

_Greetings! I understand how odd this must feel at the moment and I know, personally from this very same experience, that you have more than a few questions. First allow me to offer my apologies for dropping Lily on you like this but, alas, times being what they are by the time she arrives I'll trust you to understand that there simply was no other choice._

_Time, as we know, is a tricky thing and a truly wonderful thing if you think about it. Lily, as I'm sure you've guessed, is not from your time nor is she of any time before it. She comes after, several, several years after and from a world very different from either of ours. In her time witches wear pants and aren't expected to be kept; I do not need to tell you what I mean I'm most sure. They run and fly and play Quidditch and duel and they are all very good at it. Lily is very good at it as well. She is a remarkable witch, powerful and not unlike another you know although her darkness is not so far reaching. I cannot tell you everything, obviously, but I can tell you this: she is there for a reason._

_And now, no doubt, you have found your curiosity piqued and would like to know what. That I cannot tell you for to do so would be damaging, very, very damaging for what will and must be. We both know that time cannot truly be changed; things are and always will be exactly as they are intended. Lily's time in your present will be long reaching, several years if I remember correctly, at the end of which she will return forwards only after she has completed that which she was sent to do. Just as you are, know that she is oblivious to her purpose as well. She knows only that there is something she must accomplish, she knows not what it is, and that is how it must remain. Things must play out as they are meant to or else, there will be no world for her to return to when her task has been completed._

_To this end I leave you the following instruction: Let her go to Hogwarts. It is there that she will begin her mission and it is there that she will harness the means by which to complete it. She will need a protector, someone whom can play the role and whose own power can persuade others that there is a reason she knows what she knows and acts as she does; unafraid and defiantly independent. She will need to be prepared for the time in which she finds herself, of its happenings and leanings so that she can better acclimate herself to her new surroundings. She will do well and so you will see, she is the last hope any of us have to make right the world and keep the darkness from consuming the light._

_I leave her in your care and know that you will take care of her. More will reveal itself to you in time. Listen to what she says, the names and events she will speak of will tell you what to do when the time is right so that in the future you yourself can write this letter that will in time finds its way back to you._

_Cheers!_

_Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore_

Upon the completion of the letter, and upon seeing his own signature at the bottom, Dumbledore was even more in a state of shock then he had been in previously. The girl, Lily the letter had said, was from the future and had been sent backwards on a mission she knew nothing about only that she _was_ on one in order to, if he had interpreted it correctly, save the world. Of course, Dumbledore knew better than to try and interfere, as he had told himself in the letter, events in time will always happen exactly as they're meant to and the upcoming years, apparently, that Lily would spend with them in this present were no different.

But oh, the headache he was going to have from all this in the morning. The prickle of one was starting behind his eyes right now. This was why, after he re-read the letter to see if he missed anything he sighed, folded it up, set it aside and returned to looking at the young witch before him.

"Your name is Lily," he eventually said to her, not truly knowing what else to say. As indicated, she apparently knew less about the situation then he did.

"And you're Albus Dumbledore."

He had to admit that for someone who just left everything they've ever known and had travelled through time, she was remarkably self-composed. It was almost uncanny. He took a breath, "Do you know the year?" peering at her from behind his spectacles he wondered what if anything she had been told. "Do you know anything about why you're here?"

Lily shook her head. "I know the year, it's 1943 but other than that…" she trailed off and crossed her arms with a huff, obviously annoyed that that was all she knew, "My father didn't _tell_ me anything!"

The feeling was mutual although Albus supposed that he was more frustrated than anything else. The lack of information certainly made the progression of things more difficult. The old wizard let loose another sigh. "I know little more than you, I'm afraid," he informed her, indicating the letter he'd set aside with a nod of his head. "I have, however, been given a set of instructions. It appears as though your mission, whatever that may be, is to begin at Hogwarts so to Hogwarts you must go although coming up with a story as to why you are suddenly there when you weren't before promises to be rather difficult. You are certain that you know nothing more about why you are here?"

Lily shook her head. "No sir," she told him, "Nothing."

Perhaps it was because the last time someone had said those words to him it had turned out to be anything but nothing, Dumbledore peered harder at the girl over the top of his half-moon spectacles. His scrutiny concluded when her emerald eyes narrowed and she glared at him.

"You don't believe me."

"I don't not believe you, Lily," he said, "It's just, this situation is highly unusual and I can't help but want to have all the answers."

Lily dropped her eyes. "You and me both," she muttered.

"Yes, that would certainly make things easier wouldn't it?" Dumbledore asked although, he knew that she knew that it was more of a rhetorical question then one he expected to be answered. He glances at the clock above his mantle. "Well now, it's quite late and you, my dear, are no doubt very tired. Perhaps it would be best if we both were to go to bed. We can pick up where we've left in the morning."

Agreeing with him because, honestly, Lily _was_ tired not to mention more than a little overwhelmed she stepped back so that the old wizard could rise and then followed him from the room. They went up a flight of stairs and then turned down a hallway until Dumbledore stopped in front of a door. With a wave of his hand it opened and Lily peered forwards into what was to be her room for at least the next night.

"I bid you goodnight, Miss Lily," Dumbledore told her before allowing her to step pass him and into the room.

"Goodnight Sir," Lily replied as she closed the door behind her and promptly collapsed onto the bed. Rolling over onto her back, she stared up at the dark ceiling and thought about what had happened to her. It didn't quite seem real and she very much suspected that it wouldn't for quite a while yet. Closing her eyes and feeling herself drift into sleep; Lily knew that she half expected to find herself back in her room at home when she woke.

Only time would tell.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the door, Dumbledore stood there and allowed himself a moment to think. Consulting what he remembered from the letter he knew that if Lily was to go to Hogwarts and not be obviously out of place then a backstory would have to be made in order to explain both her presence and why she had suddenly appeared now. The task was daunting to say the least and while Dumbledore normally held to the ideal that the best lies were the simplest ones he knew that creating a history for Lily would be no easy thing. The letter has said that she was powerful and had lent much to the belief that she was very ahead of the times as far as social progress was concerned. Dumbledore had to assume then that she came from a time when witches and wizards were considered equals in all things and that being told that she'd have to conform to being lesser was not something she'd handle well.

With a head full of ideas and plans for every conceivable possibility, Dumbledore returned to his study rather than taking his own advice to go to bed. Setting himself down at his desk, he pulled some parchment and a quill towards him and began to write. If he was going to do this then he needed help and there was only one wizard he could think of that could be trusted with a task such as this. Summoning Fawkes to him with a wave, Dumbledore concluded his letter, folded it and passed it off to the phoenix.

"Take this to Xavier," he asked the bird who bowed his head, took the parchment in his beak and then took off out the window.

Now that that was done, Dumbledore dragged himself back upstairs and went to sleep.

~xXx~

When Lily woke in the morning it was to a strange room in the dim light of early morn. Sitting up, she looked around and tried to remember how she got here. Her stomach dropped and it all rushed back to her. She had gone back in time, was in Dumbledore's house and would apparently be going to Hogwarts in the near future. Lily had to lean forwards and put her head between her knees in order to keep her world from spinning.

What oh what had she let her father talk her into?

As soon as she could count on herself to no longer feel ill with the enormity of the circumstance she'd been literally thrust into, Lily threw back the covers and got up. Looking around the room once more she espied what she assumed were time appropriate clothes laid out for her on the foot of the bed. Shirt, skirt, belt, boots and socks there were also two other things in the pile that she had absolutely no idea what they were. Examination proved one to be underwear although to Lily they looked more like high-waisted shorts then panties but she dismissed it as a sign of the times. The other thing left her stumped.

"What the bloody hell is this?" she murmured aloud, holding it up to examine it. It looked like some sort of corset contraption. "How am I supposed to – _ack!_"

A soft crack interrupted her mid-examination and Lily let out a surprised sound before turning to investigate the source of the noise. She didn't draw her wand because she'd been taught to never let the enemy know you're armed until you had to. That way they were surprised when they suddenly found themselves hexed which gave you the chance to either kill them or get away. In this instance, Lily was glad she hadn't overreacted because the creature she found herself looking at was a harmless house-elf. She let out a shaky, almost inaudible breath.

"Who are you?" she asked.

The elf blinked at her and then smiled, dipping down into a little curtsy. It struck Lily at that time that she was wearing a nice little dress rather than a pillowcase or something else like you'd normally see on a house-elf. Popping back up out of her curtsy, the elf replied, "I is Missy and my master is telling me to help young miss get dressed today."

Lily frowned. "Oh…thank you but I can get dressed myself I just need to know what this," she indicated the corset looking thing, "…is."

Missy looked positively tickled at the thought of explaining it to her. "That is a spencer, young miss," the elf explained, "You is wearing that to keep everything in. It stretches and you is stepping into it and then tying up the back. That is why Missy is here, Missy is helping young miss get dressed."

Mouth forming an 'oh' of understanding, Lily quickly took off her pajamas – a pair of sleeping pants and an old quidditch jersey of her mother's that had _Gryffindor_ embellished across the back – and her modern underclothes and got redressed in the ones Dumbledore had provided for her. Contrary to what she'd told the elf, Lily did end up needing her to lace up the back of the spencer. Once it'd been tied off, Lily realized why witches in old photographs from around this time always looked so prim and proper; it was because they were forced to stand up straight. Taking a seat on the end of the bed Lily discerned that there was absolutely no way to slump while wearing this thing.

It did however, do wonderful things for her figure and her breasts. The support was phenomenal so she decided she didn't mind much not being able to slouch. While she was adjusting, Missy pulled a pair of stockings from under the remaining pile along with what was obviously a slip.

"Here yous go, young miss," the elf chirped helpfully. "Does you needing my help?"

Lily shook her head. "Ah…no, I think I've got it from here. Thank you Missy."

The little elf beamed her grin almost wider than her whole face. "You is welcomed young miss!"

Taking the offered garments, Lily stepped into each stocking and affixed the top to the garters hanging off the spencer. Then she slid on the slip. When at last all her undergarments were on (and in Lily's opinion witches in the forties wore entirely too many of them) she reached for the shirt and skirt, put them on and then turned to look at herself in a mirror that she suddenly noticed was there. She had an odd feeling that it had just magically appeared.

Her eyes widened at the image reflected back at her. No _way_ was that _her_. She looked…grown up. The blouse that had been provided was made of cream colored silk with a high neck and large lace collar; the sleeves were long and the cuffs flared out to cover the top portion of her hands. The skirt was long and had a high waistband of very dark brown leather before giving way to a more chocolate toned silk and was slightly longer in the back then in the front. When she put on the boots and then stood back in front of the mirror Lily let herself smile.

She definitely liked this outfit better than a t-shirt and jeans.

"Would you likes Missy to help young miss with her hair?"

Turning from the mirror, Lily looked at the elf and shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

Missy let out an excited sounding squeal before reaching for Lily's hand and then guiding to sit before a large, dark wood vanity. Once the young witch was seated, the elf picked up a brush and a comb and then went to work on Lily's long, scarlet tresses gleefully smiling the whole while.

~xXx~

"I can positively say without a doubt that you did indeed write this."

Albus glared at the young, well, young_er_, wizard standing across from him in his drawing room. Rather than sending a reply back with Fawkes, Xavier Prewett had decided that a more personal visit was in order which was why Dumbledore had been awoken not twenty minutes ago to the sound of somebody apperating into his bedroom. He really hadn't been surprised to discover that it was Xavier so he'd gotten up, gotten dressed and then escorted his friend down to the drawing room where he proceeded to explain things to him in more detail. Xavier had then asked to see the letter and now, having read it, the curse breaker had seen fit to make a sarcastic remark that Albus was entirely not in the mood for.

"It was sealed with a blood seal which could only have been opened by the one who sealed it so yes, thank you, Xavier but I much assumed that I did indeed write it."

"Or rather, you _will_ indeed write it sometime in the future."

Dumbledore sighed. "Yes, that as well."

Xavier smirked. "Forgive me Albus, you know how I like to play with words," the younger man took a seat across from his elder counterpart. "What do you make of it?"

"I do not entirely know," Dumbledore answered truthfully. "She appeared at random, straight through my wards; given the content of the letter and whom it was written by I can assume that the portkey was created by my future self. Her mission must be important whatever it is."

"And we have no idea, no clue?" Xavier asked, frowning.

"Nor does she."

"That is putting a great deal on faith."

Dumbledore nodded. "I agree but I dare not attempt to hinder her. I fear that I am bound to follow the instructions given me by my future self or suffer the consequences."

Xavier's face turned solemn. "Disastrous things happen to those who meddle with time."

"Indeed yes," the bearded wizard took a great sigh, "And I should not like to be one of them."

"What do we have to go on?" Xavier asked, leaning back in his chair to study the dying fire. "What type of witch is she; do we know anything about her or her abilities?"

Dumbledore opened his mouth to respond but was prevented from doing so by the voice of the witch in question. From her tone, it was obvious that she was annoyed that they'd been talking about her. "You could always ask her."

Both wizards twisted in their chairs in order to look at her. She was standing in the doorway wearing the clothes that Albus had selected for her and the old wizard had to admit, attired as she was in a time appropriate fashion, acquired her a presence that would have been more than a little intimidating for your average witch or wizard. As it was, there was now no doubt in his mind that she was powerful.

"Good morning Lily," her host greeted, nodding to her and gesturing with a hand towards the wizard sitting in the room with him. "This is -"

"Xavier Prewett, I know," she interrupted, turning her brilliant emerald eyes onto the curse breaker. She'd seen a picture of him once in an old family album her mum had shown her when she was seven. She had thought him intimidating then and she felt the same way now but she wasn't about to show it. Instead she held his gaze with hers and refused to look away.

Xavier smirked, the girl had gumption he'd give her that. Not many people were brave enough to meet his eyes and here she was staring him down, a little slip of a witch who couldn't be any older then maybe sixteen. Oh he liked her, he liked her a lot. "Heard of me have you?" he inquired, eyeing her shrewdly. Her gaze did not waver.

"We're related," Lily informed him, noting that this bit of information seemed to startle both wizards whose eyes widened and then narrowed respectively. She went on, "You're my grandmother's uncle."

"Am I?" Xavier questioned, surprise still rolling in him at the revelation that the girl from the future was connected to him in such a way. The letter had said that she'd need an ally, someone to protect her and support her during her stay. The fact that she could claim him as a relation could not be a coincidence. Xavier had a feeling that her ally was meant to be him.

Albus had the same idea but required more information. "Lily," he implored, "The letter said that you could do things, things other young witches from this time might not be able to do. Could you tell us what you think those things might be?"

Lily pondered the question. "Well in my time, we're in the middle of a war, a cold war but a war nonetheless. I've been trained to fight since I was old enough to do magic."

Dumbledore and Xavier looked at each other before the latter asked, "Fight how?" and then, "Can you duel?"

The witch shot him what could only be described as a patronizing look. "I've been dueling since I was ten."

"Impressive," Dumbledore intoned.

Xavier was less inclined to agree. "And your level of proficiency?" he asked wondering after the fact if she even knew what that was. Most witches and wizards had no idea that there was a system in place to determine at what level one could duel. He was just about to amend his stamen when she surprised him.

"Auror level three," Lily supplied, a slight smirk appearing on her mouth as both wizards looked to her in obvious surprise.

"Can you cast the unforgivables?" Xavier wondered.

"Yes," Lily said. "We started on them when I was about twelve although we didn't get around to actually casting them until almost a year later. I've had training to be able to resist the Imperius and I've been conditioned to withstand quite of few rounds of the Cruciatus provided they're short. The only thing I can really do against the killing curse is dodge it. Because Avada is such a focused spell, it's got a narrow range which means if you're quick enough you can just step out of the way. Our teacher had us practice by firing stinging hexes at us."

Neither wizard knew what to say to this although both were getting a very solid idea of what sort of world Lily had come to them from. The future suddenly seemed bleak, very, very bleak and unfortunately the only way to fix it was to help Lily complete her mission in any way that they could. At the moment, that meant devising a history for her, a backstory to explain her both her presence and her lack of one until now. The question was how to do it.

"I have an idea," Xavier announced, looking first at Lily then to Albus before he continued speaking. "As she's technically a Prewett, albeit a few times removed, it would be easiest to claim that she's mine. My notoriety is a good enough reason why both her existence would have been kept secret until now and why it is no longer safe for her to remain by my side. Given the state of worldly affairs, I hardly think anyone will question her sudden appearance if only vague information is given and her tie to me is made known."

Dumbledore frowned. "And how do we explain her level of magical competence?"

"Do you not think me capable of being able to teach my daughter how to spell cast on my own, Albus?" the curse breaker asked with a straight face and with all seriousness.

Lily smirked.

Slowly, Dumbledore began to nod. "Plausible, very plausible," he looked the wizard who was setting himself up quite nicely, "And her mother? What of her name? Will we call her Lily Prewett?"

Xavier shook his head. "No, I rather think not. Lily," he turned to her, "What, may I ask, is your middle name?"

"Claire."

He returned his gaze to Dumbledore. "Claire will be her mother's maiden name that way it will look as if I thought to obscure her from being associated with me for her protection."

The elder wizard nodded. "And the fate of her mother?" he asked, mentally taking note of the story in his head and hoping that Lily was, at this moment, doing the same.

"Dead," came the admittedly predictable response. Xavier turned to Lily, "Do you understand?"

She inclined her head. "My mother's maiden name was Claire, she's dead, I'm your daughter and nobody knows about me because if they did then they'd use me to get to you because you're somewhat of a threat to pretty much every dark wizard alive despite the fact that it can be argued that you are one. I'm coming to Hogwarts because it's no longer safe to stay with you due to the rising danger of the war with Grindelwald," she paused, "Did I miss anything?"

Xavier shook his head. "No, I'd say you have a fair grasp of what's happening," he turned to Albus. "Term starts tomorrow; it would look odd if she were to arrive at its very start. I think perhaps we should wait a day or two, perhaps a week and in the interim, I will write to Dippet explaining the situation to him."

"Very good," Dumbledore confirmed, "Will you be taking her with you then or would you prefer that she remain here?"

Xavier smirked. "She will come with me, I think," his gaze shifted towards the witch he had just, for all intents and purposes, adopted, "We can use the intervening time to get to know one another. The interaction can be utilized later to add depth to our little charade should we ever have need of it," he then thought to add, "Is this acceptable to you?"

Lily nodded. "Yeah," she replied, "That'll work. Maybe I should study up on current events too while I'm at it. I don't want to be asked a question that I'd be expected to know the answer to and say the wrong thing."

"A reasonable request," Xavier was pleased with her forethought. He stood and held out his arm, indicating that she should take it. "Shall we?"

Placing her hand on the wizard's arm, Lily was able to thank Dumbledore for his hospitality before Xavier apperated and the room she had been standing in vanished.

~xXx~

In the end, Xavier waited four days before sending an owl to Hogwarts with a letter explaining that he had a daughter whom he would like to begin attending school. He was purposefully vague and gave only what information was necessary and yet still enough so that he'd be believed. He received a reply less than a day later and so he knew that the plan had worked, Lily would be attending Hogwarts. Now all there was left to do was prepare her.

True to her word, Lily had spent the days since leaving Dumbledore's house reading up on current world events as well as some of the more notable goings on in the past decade and a half; things she would be expected to know or at least have heard about once she was amongst peers her age. She and Xavier had even come up with more solid details concerning her story and the past that everyone would have to believe they shared. The curse breaker had told her about his family; about how his mother had died and his father had remarried. Lily was quite shocked to learn that his brother, her great-great grandfather, was actually younger then she was.

"You'll probably have at least one run in with him while you're at school," Xavier told her, "I've not spoken to my father since before Ignatius was born so it won't look suspicious that he doesn't know about you. I must admit, there are very few that can claim to know anything about my personal life. It's quite feasible for me to have had an actual daughter and have nobody know. Sometimes, anonymity has its advantages."

Lily had been inclined to agree given the circumstances and they'd continued to trade little bits of frivolity back and forth between each other until bed. In the morning when Lily woke the first thought that came to her was that after today she'd be an official student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The knowledge was both thrilling and terrifying. All her life she'd heard her parents, Uncle Ron, Aunt Hermione, Neville, Luna and Hannah talk about their years at Hogwarts with the understanding that she'd never actually get to go. Now that she was, she was almost in fits she was nervous. She didn't know what would be worse; if she got there and realized that it had been all built up in her head or that it was all true and just as wonderful as her parents had always described. And if her own internal contraries were not enough Lily had to remember that she was going to be attending Hogwarts in a different totally different era, seventy years before either of her parents would set foot in the school. That on top of everything else just made her that much more anxious to just get there and get it over with.

But of course because she was so riled up, time seemed to have stopped and was moving ridiculously slowly. Lily felt like she was libel to start screaming at any moment when Xavier seemed to take sudden pity on her and suggested that she accompany him to Diagon Alley to get her school things. He'd explained to her that Dippet would wish to test her in order to place her in the appropriate year but both he and she were confident that she would be placed in sixth regardless of the fact that she'd be appearing halfway through the year. Therefore Xavier didn't think it to presumptuous to go ahead and prepare her as though her placement had already been decided.

Lily was just thankful for the distraction.

The first place they went when Xavier apperated them into the magically concealed London alley was Gringotts. Lily wasn't really paying much attention for the first ten minutes or so after they'd entered the wizarding bank but once Xavier turned to her and asked her hold out her hand, she shoved her thoughts aside and started to pay attention.

"Why?"

The wizard humored her with a smile. "Our family vault is one of the oldest at Gringotts, located beneath the mines. One does not use a key to get into such vaults as that. They open only for those whose blood they recognize."

Lily was beginning to see how being Xavier's great-great-grandniece was going to come in handy in when they needed to corroborate their story. Technically she was a Prewett even if her last name was something different. Two days ago Xavier had explained quite a bit about blood magic to her over dinner. It had been an interesting conversation to say the least. "Alright," she said and held out her hand.

The goblin that she hadn't known she'd been standing in front of, took her hand and turned it so that it was palm up and parallel to the ground. Taking a small, silver dagger, he made a small cut and then let go. Lily was surprised that one, the cut hadn't hurt and two, it closed on its own as soon as the Goblin released her. With equal parts curiosity and amazement, Lily watched the goblin walk over to a giant leger, touch the tip of the dagger with her blood on it to the page and then step down and turn towards them.

"Your daughter's blood is now capable of unlocking the vault, Master Prewett," the creature said, bowing a little towards the wizard. "At any time she may enter it and remove however much funding she requires."

"My thanks," Xavier replied before he offered Lily his arm and leading her towards what looked like a mining cart on wheels. "Hang on," he whispered to her and then they were off, the little goblin that had cut her at the helm.

"That was fun," Lily exclaimed when they finally stopped deep in the earth beneath the bank. "Can we go again?"

"On the ride back up," Xavier laughed; pleased with her excitement over something that would've been trivial to anyone else. In the past five days Xavier had learned a great deal more about the life that lily had left in order to come here and the more he learned, the more he pitied her. There were so many things that she had never gotten to do, never gotten to experience before coming back in time that Xavier prayed she'd have the joy of knowing before she returned. It made him feel more like a true parent as each day brought him new ways to share with her a world that she'd only ever stood on the very edge of.

Now, she was right in the middle.

The goblin led them away from the cart and through a narrow passageway to a very small, inconspicuous looking door that looked altogether too ordinary to belong to one of the oldest and wealthiest houses in the wizarding world. Of course, that was the idea and Xavier told as much to Lily as they stood waiting for the door to recognize them and give them entry. Once it did, it swung open inwardly to revel a large, cavernous room that was filled to bursting with piles and piles of gold coins, chests of gold and silver bricks, cases of rare and priceless books, and all manner of other shiny, valuable things littered here and there.

Lily stared. "That's a lot of gold."

Xavier smirked. "You'd be hard put to spend it all that's for certain although; I suppose it's not impossible. About a century ago one of our ancestors certainly tried; he died before he could do too much damage."

"Natural cause or convenient accident?" Lily asked, one eyebrow lifting in silent query.

Xavier laughed. "The official story is that he caught the dragon pox but I really don't know. I would not have put it past one of his sons to have killed him."

"We may never know," Lily intoned solemnly although levity was evident in the twitch of her lips as she spoke.

"Very true," the wizard agreed with equal humor as he strode towards a pile of coins, scooped a large sum of them up into a little, green velvet sack and then held said bag out towards Lily. "Try not to spend it all in one place."

"I shall try," Lily promised before backtracking and following Xavier and the goblin from the vault back to the cart. The ride to the surface was just as much of a rush as the ride down had been and Lily was feeling much better and less stressed upon her departure from the bank then she had going into it. Taking Xavier's once again proffered arm, she let her pseudo-sire lead her out into the bright winter's day and towards the other shops in Diagon Alley.

"Where are we going first?" she asked him.

Glancing sideways at the clearly happy witch, Xavier outlined his plan for the day. "Our meeting with Dippet isn't until nearly four, it's barely eleven now. Not only are you new to the time but you arrived with nothing. I think it's best if we start from scratch with you so, Lily, tell me what you think you need the most?"

"Clothes," was the witch's immediate answer. "Not that they're not cool or anything but I'd really like to pick out my own clothes for a change, if that's alright with you."

"I thought that might be where we started off," Xavier sighed and began walking down the street. "Madam Malkin's is this way."

Minutes later Lily found herself in a shop surrounded by brightly colored fabrics of every type and design. Sitting himself down on one of the chairs by the entrance, Xavier waved Lily off to go explore while he conjured a book out of his pocket and began to read. As if in a daze, the young witch led herself wander deeper and deeper into the store until she found the proprietress. "Um, excuse me," she began hesitantly, "I…ah, need some help."

The witch that turned to her had a cheery sort of face and a kind, happy smile. "What can I do for you today my dear?" she asked sunnily.

Lily floundered for a minute unsure how to put into words what she needed. Thankfully thought, Xavier was paying attention and came to her rescue.

"Hello Madam, so nice to see you again."

The woman, who Lily assumed must be Madam Malkin, looked up past her and once her eyes alighted on Xavier, let out a loud gasp; her hands flying up to over her mouth. "Xavier! What on earth are you doing here!?"

The wizard smirked and indicated Lily with a nod of his head. "I'm here to purchase my daughter some things. I trust you will be able to oblige?"

The Madam stared at him, blinked several times and then looked from Xavier to Lily and then back again. "I didn't know you had a daughter!" she exclaimed loudly.

Xavier gave her a look that was not unkind but did contain warning. "Most people don't and I aim to keep it that way. Lily is most precious to me and while I do not like the idea of parting with her I fear that, at the moment, I have no choice. It is simply no longer safe that she remain with me."

"And so you've returned and brought your girl with you," Malkin surmised, coming to her own conclusions based on the information provided. "Will she be going to Hogwarts? Term has already started hasn't it?"

"It has but due to the gravity of the situation I've convinced Dippet to allow her to enroll anyway," Xavier explained. "She'll need school robes for certain but as we've come rather hastily from our previous location I'm afraid that Lily wasn't able to bring anything else with her. She requires a new wardrobe, one that will suit her in her new role and environment. I trust," and there caution reappeared in his tone, "…there will be no problem with this?"

Madam Malkin shook her head vigorously. "No, no Xavier everything will be fine. I'll take good care of her," she then turned to Lily and gestured for the girl to follow her, "Come this way," she instructed, "Let's get started."

After receiving a quick nod of encouragement from Xavier, Lily followed the witch to the back of the shop and let her put her on a low, round pedestal where the Madam pulled out a magic tape measurer and began taking Lily's measurements. Then she began whisking robes from all directions towards the bewildered witch and holding them up to her for her to see. Lily was able to discern from there that it was rather like playing dress up and as she'd never really had much of an opportunity to play at it as a child, she decided that it really was quite good fun.

An hour and a half later found her with everything she could possibly ever need including but not limited to skirts, dresses, boots, shoes, blouses, jackets, coats, capes, belts and a variety of other add-ons the likes of which she'd never dreamt of being able to call her own. All in all it put rather a large dent in her money bag but Xavier didn't seem too worried and Lily all but skipped out of the shop and down the street; all of her items in bags and shrunk to fit in her pocket.

"Now what?" she asked excitedly.

Xavier could no long contain his amusement at her exuberance. Chuckling he replied, "I thought we might do lunch next and from there we shall see to your school things and then, I believe it will be time to go."

Lily smiled. "Sounds like a plan."

The wizard indulged her with a smile and let her to the Leaky Cauldron where they were seated and served in less than twenty minutes. They spent the meal lost in idle chatter about any number of things and then, with the bill paid, they were off again to get the last of the things Lily would need for her time at Hogwarts.

This time the shopping didn't take nearly as long. The books were easy to locate and buy as where the various other things; caldron, scales, potions ingredients, parchment rolls and quills. The last thing they purchased was a trunk in which to store it all and Lily carefully transferred her new wardrobe into the chest before Xavier touched her arm and announced that it was time to go. The curse breaker shrunk her trunk and then held out his arm as had become customary and then disapperated.

They reappeared in front of the main gates of Hogwarts and Lily, whose eyes immediately fell on the castle, heard herself let out a breathy sort of gasp.

"Wow," she breathed, unable to believe that she was really, honestly here.

"Quite the sight is it not?"

The witch nodded. "Yes," she answered, "It really is."

"I remember my first time seeing it," Xavier mused, holding out his arm again. "Shall we?"

Taking it, Lily allowed her pseudo-father to lead her through the gates, up the slopping lawn and into the castle proper. The halls were quiet and Lily was left to assume that classes were either still in session or had just gotten out and that everyone was in their dormitories. Either way, they met no one on their way to the Headmaster's office and suddenly all the nerves that she'd thought she'd gotten rid of earlier in the day came back and hit Lily with their full force. She swallowed hard and clung more tightly to Xavier's arm. The wizard seemed to know what was running through his head because he whispered to her that it would be alright just as they reached the stone gargoyle that blocked the entrance to the Headmaster's office.

"Cockroach clusters," Xavier spoke the password and then turned towards Lily as the stone beast sprang aside and the way up was revealed. "Dippet let's Albus choose the passwords because he can never remember them."

It was an attempt to alleviate some of her anxiety and Lily had to thank the wizard for it even if it didn't work. Within minutes of climbing they'd reached a door. Xavier knocked and the door opened inwards revealing an office that looked nothing like what her parents had described or what she'd seen in old pictures. Upon entering the office Lily and her escort found themselves looking at two wizened old wizards; one seated behind a very large, very ornate carved wooden desk and the other in a chair before said desk. The wizard in the chair was Dumbledore and so Lily concluded that the one behind the desk must be Dippet. She inwardly frowned. It felt wrong to her for Dumbledore not to be headmaster; she's never heard of any time when he hadn't been but then, she didn't know of anybody from this time period other then maybe McGonagall and Lily had never actually met her father and mother's old head of house. She guessed that it was just one more of many things that she'd have to get used to here in the near future.

"Ah, Mr. Prewett," the wizard behind the desk greeted, acknowledging the wizard with a bow of his head before turning to look at the young witch by his side, "You must be Lily."

Trying to remember her manners, Lily sketched a curtsy while still holding tightly to Xavier's arm. "Headmaster," she acknowledged, raising back up. "Thank you for receiving us."

In his chair, Dumbledore smiled, pleased with Lily's response. Despite the fact that he could tell she was nervous beyond measure, she was doing very well.

The headmaster, meanwhile, took a moment to look the girl over. She certainly _looked_ like Xavier. Her mouth was the same as were her cheekbones and nose. Her hair was such a deep, rich shade of red that it was almost scarlet, the same shade as her father's mother. Her skin was pale, not peach but not ivory and it was flawless save for a small smattering of barely noticeable freckles across the bridge of her nose. She was a beautiful girl, a very beautiful girl and for the second time since he'd learned of her existence, Dippet wondered how Xavier had managed to keep the world from knowing about her for so long.

He didn't need an explanation as to why. Xavier Prewett was arguably the most dangerous wizard alive triumphing even Grindelwald in terms of sheer, raw power. The difference lay in how he used it. Xavier Prewett was technically a curse breaker, an extremely powerful individual that went around taking hexes off of cursed objects or places and opened things like tombs and the like off in faraway lands. Xavier, however, had taken it a bit further than that. He'd opened his fair share of tombs but he'd gained his infamy by undoing some very powerful works of magic originally cast by some very dark wizards. Since he'd first risen to power, Xavier had let it be known that anything Grindelwald did, he would undo and it was a promise he'd kept for the last decade or so. The point was that there were many a witch and wizard abroad that wanted Xavier Prewett dead and if they'd known that he had a young daughter then Dippet didn't want to think about what they might try and do in order to get to him through her.

No, Armando understood perfectly _why_ he had never heard of her before. What still baffled him was how completely Xavier had managed to keep her a secret and for how long. It was an extraordinary feat to be sure and spoke to his obvious devotion to her. Dippet admired the man for it and also feared him for if he had done so much to keep her hidden and keep her safe, then what manner of ill fortune must have befallen her to have her father suddenly reveal her existence and ask him to let her attend school here for her own protection.

"I feel I must ask you something," the headmaster began, folding his hands gently atop his desk, "But, alas, I find that I do not quite know how."

Xavier, however, did not need an explanation, He could well guess what Armando's question was and so he stove to answer it for him. "Why, if I have kept her from the world for so many years, have I chosen to reveal her now?"

Dippet inclined his head thankful for Xavier's reasoning and deduction skills. "Yes, that is it exactly."

The wizard sighed. "I have kept my daughter with me since the death of her mother whom I allowed to leave my side only to have a terrible fate befall her. I could not risk the same with Lily, not when she is so utterly precious to me. She has remained by my side exclusively these past sixteen years and I trust very few with the knowledge of her existence but, recently, there is one that has learned of her. One, whom I fear, will take this new information back to his master. I fear for her and in my ability to keep her safe if so many were to come for her. That is why I have asked that she be allowed to continue her studies here. Hogwarts is the only place that I would ever dream of allowing her to exist separate from me, this castle has ancient magic that has been unchanged in centuries. It will protect her and keep her until the threat is gone and I can fetch her back to me."

Throughout his speech, Dippet had watched as more and more power seemed to gather around the curse breaker until, by the end of it, his aura was so charged that the headmaster pitied the poor, ignorant creature stupid enough to try and harm the witch. Yes, it was clear to see that her father adored her and he would protect her, with everything he had. It would also not surprise Dippet if Lily herself knew more about defensive magic then most young witches her age given the danger that could threaten her at any moment.

Still, curiosity prickled at him. "I can assume that while she is here that you would like to continue her anonymity as pertains to her connection with you?" upon the wizards nod, the headmaster let out a deep sounding sigh. "How do you plan on accomplishing this if she is to be sorted under your name?"

"Simply," Xavier replied, "She won't be. I christened her with her mother's maiden name as her surname rather than my own. Her birth record states her name as Lily Claire and while her mother's name is listed, mine is not. I knew, even then, of the dangers that could befall her if she were ever linked in such a way to me. I took precautions and those precautions will stand to this day. I trust that none will be able to figure it out unless they are expressly told."

"Which they will not be," Dumbledore spoke from his chair, his elbows resting on its arms, his hands steepled before him. " I assure you, Xavier, there will be every effort to conceal her identity for as long as possible."

"Yes, as long as possible," Dippet agreed, turning his attention from the father to the daughter who, he noted, had long been eyeing him with much too much scrutiny for a witch her age. Unable to stand the intensity of her emerald stare, Dippet tore his eyes from hers and returned them to Xavier. The time had come to discuss the true reason the four of them had gathered here.

"In your letter, you indicated that you have been responsible for her education up until this point," Dippet looked for confirmation and continued when he saw the curse breaker nod. "At what level of spell casting is she deemed proficient?"

Remembering what had happened the last time someone had asked that and her response; Xavier turned his attention towards his 'daughter'. "Lily?" he prompted the young witch who had apparently calmed herself as she was no longer trying to cut off the circulation to his arm with her fingers. "Would you like to give the headmaster an overview of your abilities?"

Dippet's attention traveled to his prospective student and held.

Lily took a deep breath, plastered on a serene looing smile and answered, "Perhaps, if you would permit me, I could perform a demonstration?"

Slightly surprised by the offer, Dippet inclined his head in invitation for her to proceed. Lily drew out her wand and pointed it at a random object upon the headmaster's desk. With a quick and decisive flick and jab of her wrist the object – a very fine gold goblet – was instantly transfigured into a white parrot. Another flick and the bird's plumage changed from the color of snow to the most brilliant shade of orange she could muster. A swish made it sing. Another flick changed the pitch of the tune and then a final sweeping motion, a reverse of the first movement performed, turned the parrot back into a cup.

Lily lowered her wand and Dippet leaned forwards just enough so that he was able to see that she had even returned the cider he'd been drinking to its original place.

"Impressive," he allotted her, taking a sip only to realize that it tasted better after having been transfigured then it had before. He set the goblet down and looked appraisingly at the young witch. "Does that conclude the demonstration or is there more?"

The corners of Lily's mouth turned up only just as she raised her wand once more and began casting silent spells left and right. By the time she was through she had charmed the headmaster's many books to sing the school song, all with prefect pitch and in a round; the empty chair next to Dumbledore was tap dancing; the letters on Dippet's desk had been transfigured into a flock of birds and were flying around the office like a great, synchronized cloud of bees; the glass in all the window's had vanished; Dumbledore's beard was an elaborate shade of blue; and the headmaster, the chair he was sitting in and his desk were being held at a constant level of levitation three feet off the ground. As easily as she had cast the incantations, Lily ended them all in the same instant with only a quiet _finite_. His office once more put back to sorts, Dippet was about to open his mouth to pronounce a job well done when Lily turned towards him and announced that she had one more thing she wished to show him.

"Please," was the headmaster's encouraging response.

For the final time Lily lifted her wand brandished it before her in a familiar pattern of movements. _"Expecto Patronum!"_

All three of the wizard's in the room felt their eyes widen when, a moment after she finished speaking, a sliver transparent serpent spilled from her wand tip and began to slither through the room. The snake circled the room twice before it's mistress canceled it and then lowered her wand, at last content that she had done all she could to prove that she deserved to be here. At least as far as spell casting was concerned.

As soon as the slivery serpent was gone, Dippet folded his hands upon his restored papers and gave a nod towards the witch for a job well done. "Very well done, Miss Claire," he intoned before he cast his gaze towards her father, "She is a credit to you, Xavier. A very great credit."

"I choose to think so," the wizard replied, bestowing upon the witch a smile of genuine pride.

Beside him, Lily let herself smile although her outward expression was nothing compared to her inward one. Inside she was doing mental jumping jacks while screaming silently over and over again, "Way to go me, way to go!"

Dippet smiled at her. "I have but a few more questions before we decide your placement and get you sorted. They pertain to potions. What two ingredients lend the Draught of Peace its potency?"

Lily smirked. "Moonstone and syrup of hellebore."

"Correct," Dippet went on, "What is the most effect way to save someone dying of poison?"

"Shove a bezoar down their throat and hold their mouth closed until they swallow."

It was a sarcastic answer but a true one and all three of the wizards fought to control smirks.

Dippet continued. "Name the ingredients needed and the instructions for brewing polyjuice potion."

"Lacewing flies stewed for 21 days, leeches, powdered bicorn horn, knotgrass, fluxweed picked at full moon, shredded boomslang skin and a bit of whoever you wants to turn into…"

The questioning continued along in the same vein for some ten more minutes before Dippet was satisfied that Lily knew what she was talking about. When at last the interrogation came to an end, Xavier turned and looked the headmaster dead in the eye.

"She has earned a place I trust?" he asked.

"She has, I believe," Dippet replied, taking another sip of his cider, "One could hardly refuse her after that performance," he turned to look at Lily, "You are sixteen are you no Lady Claire?" when she nodded, he proceeded to ask, "And when is your birthday?"

"July thirty-first."

"Very good then," Dippet paused to consider something before continuing, "Given your level of advancement, I do not believe it would be too troublesome to insert you into the sixth year even though the term in already half over. I do not feel comfortable placing you in seventh but I've no doubt you would be bored to tears if I were to put you into fifth. No, sixth year it is for you my dear, I think you shall do well there."

Lily dropped into another polite curtsy. "Thank you, headmaster. I shall see to it that your faith in me is not misplaced."

Dippet grunted. "I do not see that there is any fear of that, Miss Claire, given what I have seen of your magical abilities. Now, all that remains is to get you sorted and for you to select which classes you think you would like to take."

Her stomach clenched as she remembered the conversation she'd had with Hugo, the twins and Alice about what house she'd theoretically be in if she were to ever go to Hogwarts. _"Well,"_ she thought, _"I'm here now, it's not a theory anymore. Let's see if everyone's predictions come true." _Still, even as curious as she was, she almost wanted to save the best, the sorting, for last. "Might we do the course selection first?" she inquired.

"As you like," Dippet replied before reaching into his desk to withdraw a paper which he then passed off to her. "These are the courses available to study for students in the sixth year. You may select up to nine or as few as five. As soon as you're sorted, I'll give your selections to your head of house and a timetable will be made ready for you tomorrow."

Graciously, Lily took the booklet and began to leaf through it, pausing every now and then to read the description of the class and to listen to Xavier's comments over which ones he thought she might like the most. When she was done and had made indications on the paper beside each of the classes she wanted to take, she handed it back to Dippet who placed it to one side and nodded towards Dumbledore.

Taking the silent cue, Dumbledore stood and retrieved an old, battered looking hat from atop a set of bookcases. Walking back over towards Lily, he offered her the chair he'd just vacated to sit in. "Now, let's find out what house you shall be in although if I may say, if your patronus is any indication, I think I it would be safe to make an educated guess."

_That's what Alice was saying_; Lily recalled as she took the offered seat, folded her hands into her lap and then held her breath as Dumbledore lowered the hat onto her head. Suddenly, Lily heard a voice begin to whisper in her ear.

'_Ahh, Miss Potter, you've come a long ways to get here haven't you?'_

'_It's Miss Claire now,"_ Lily thought back at the hat, "_I don't suppose you'd get on with it would you?'_

'_All in good time, young witch_, _all in good time_,' the hat went on,_ 'Now, let's have a look here shall we? My, my, I see cunning, yes, yes, you're very cunning, and confident; very confident in what you can do and, my dear Miss Potter, you can do a great deal can't you? Yes, yes I see it all: you want so badly to prove yourself, to be all that you know you can be and more. I see power, a great power lurking deep inside of you. You are destined for great things young witch, great things. I know exactly where to put you, some place where your power with be coveted and allowed to grow, you my dear will do well here. Yes, very well indeed…'_

She knew it was coming, knew as soon as the hat had said she was cunning and that it sensed power in her. Hugo, the twins, Alice and Teddy; they'd all been right and no sooner had she acknowledge this then she heard the hat announce its decision.

"_Slytherin!"_

As Dumbledore removed the sorting hat and put it back on its shelf, Lily stood and let herself think about what had just happened and what it all meant. As of now, she was an official student at Hogwarts, she was going to have opportunities that her friends and cousins would never have, she would get to be normal for at least however long a time it took before she completed her mission and, above it all, she was now a certified member of Slytherin house.

A smirk played across her lips as Lily realized that she was where finally where she was meant to be all along.

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**A/N: ** Reviews are the only way fan-fiction authors get paid so put a quarter in my cup and make my day!


	3. Riddle Me This

**A/N: **Here's the next installment so enjoy!

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**Chapter Three: Riddle Me This**

Tom Riddle was bored.

He didn't show it, of course. Instead he sat at his desk at the very back of the room meticulously recording Slughorn's lecture, crude though it was. Now into the second half of his sixth year, Tom had been anticipating at least some challenge from his lessens but, alas, the stimulus he longed for eluded him. Resisting the urge to sigh, Tom sat up just a bit straighter and concentrated on not falling asleep.

The door opened and Professor Slughorn stopped talking both he and his students turning to see what the interruption was surprised, when they saw Dippet standing there.

"Headmaster," Slughorn greeted, dipping his head courteously. "To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?"

Dippet cleared his throat. "Forgive me, Professor, but I've come to introduce a new student to you. Extenuating circumstances have kept her from any formal schooling until now. She's been sorted into your house and she will be taking up classes in the sixth year. If I may introduce her?"

At this announcement, whispers began to break out around him and Tom felt himself frown. To his knowledge, Hogwarts had never had a student begin their schooling halfway through the year and certainly not more than halfway through the required seven year tenure. This was a singularity and Tom had to admit that he found himself intrigued, more so when Slughorn excitedly gave his go ahead to Dippet and he watched as a girl entered the classroom from behind the wizened old wizard. The whispers grew in volume as his classmates eyed her curiously and Tom could well see why. Tall and slender with a pale completion and hair the color of blood, the witch had an almost otherworldly look to her.

"Professor Slughorn is Hogwarts' potions Master and, consequentially, your new head of house," Dippet explained, turning to look at Lily to see if she understood. When he was sure that she did, he turned back to Horace, "Professor, students, the Lady Lily Claire."

"Lady hummnn?" Slughorn tittered, looking the young witch up and down, "Come from a good family do you?"

Lily, who up until this point had remained silent while taking careful stock of her surroundings, smiled blandly at the Professor before nodding slightly and replying, "Yes Sir. My father, who is a curse breaker, has been responsible for the majority of my education until now but feels that, with the current state of worldly affairs, it would be more to my benefit if I were to continue my studies here."

From the back of the room, Tom could see the gears in Slughorn's head turning as he tried to figure out if the witch in front of him was interesting enough to try and collect or was just a novelty that would eventually lose its brilliance. The daughter of a curse breaker who had taught her on his own rather than sending her off to a formal school; really she could go either way. Tom did not personally find her very interesting beyond her appearance and the newness of her presence.

"Your father's a curse breaker you say?" Slughorn asked, impressed. He frowned. "Funny, I don't think I know of any curse breakers named Claire."

Before Dippet could answer for her, Lily replied, "My father is rather high profile and thus, has many enemies. Claire was my mother's maiden name."

Still, Tom wasn't intrigued but, apparently, Slughorn was. The professor's eyes had gone wide and he was now looking very intently at the red-haired witch standing in front of him. He turned towards the headmaster. "Might I ask, Armando, who -"

"I suspect you may find out eventually but for now, I leave Lily in your care," Dippet interrupted Horace who tended to get overexcited about such things. With a gentle nod to the girl, he turned and left.

Now alone, Lily fixed her attention on Professor Slughorn who wasted no time in ushering her towards what appeared to be the only empty seat in the whole class room. She didn't much care for the stares that she was receiving but she went along with it knowing that there was nothing she could do about it.

"Come dear, sit here, next to Tom," Slughorn was saying as he led her to her seat and more or less pushed her down into the empty chair. He turned towards the boy she was now seated next to, "Tom m'boy, would you be so kind as to share your things with Miss Claire for this lesson? There, that's a good lad," he waddled back to the front of the room and took up position in front of his desk again. "Now it's time for the practical lessen. Notes away; you have exactly one hour to complete your potions. The pair with the most complete potion wins a prize," and with a flourish of his hands he added, "You may begin!"

As the students around her started taking out cauldrons and getting up to gather ingredients, Lily turned to the boy she'd been paired up with and found him watching her. "What?" she asked, a bit unnerved by the intensity of his gaze.

He blinked. Now that she was so close, Tom realized that her eyes were such a startling shade of green that they resembled emeralds. He opened his mouth, "Do you know what it is that we're supposed to be -"

"Veritaserum," Lily supplied readily before asking, "Would you like to go and get the ingredients or should I?"

"I will do it," Tom replied and left leaving Lily to set up the cauldron and light the fire. When the wizard returned they fell into an easy partnership each preparing their ingredients and adding them to the cauldron as per instruction until they got to the second to last step. After adding the crushed eye of newt to their concoction, they were supposed to stir the potion seven times counterclockwise, wait a minute, and then repeat. Lily did the first set correctly but then, rather than waiting, added an eight clockwise stir. Alarmed, Tom reached out and caught her by the wrist.

"What are you doing?" he hissed at her, his grip harsh.

Lily glared at him and wretched her arm free. "Relax, I know what I'm doing," she said hotly, continuing her ministrations.

Tom doubted this. "Clearly you don't. The instructions plainly state -"

"Potions isn't like other types of magic which have rigid structures and set rules. It's an art and, like all arts, is open to interpretation. Anyone can follow a set of instructions but it takes true talent to learn where and in what way to deviate and make alterations. You can relax; I'm not going to ruin your potion."

Although not entirely sure, Tom thought that the witch had just insinuated that he was, for lack of a better word, ordinary. The very possibility of the thought made him inconceivably angry and if it weren't for the fact that they were in the middle of class right now and within full view of a Hogwarts professor, he'd have made her dearly pay for it.

"If your deviance costs me my grade then I will-"

"Time's up!" Slughorn called, whipping out his wand and flourishing it so that all of the ingredients zoomed off the student's desks and back into the supply cupboard. Then, like a great hungry cat, he began prowling the rows of desks peering left and right into each cauldron he passed.

At his desk, Tom and Lily awaited the professor's arrival albeit for two entirely different reasons. Tom so that he could justify an excuse to put the witch in her place and Lily because she rather thought that the haughty boy sitting next to her needed to have his ego taken down a notch or two. Clearly the boy was not used to someone knowing better than him. She smirked at the thought of having shown somebody up on her very first day.

Finally Slughorn reached them and looked down into their cauldron. His eyes widened and he looked towards Tom. "Tom," he addressed his brightest student, "Would you care to explain how and why your potion is two stages farther along than it should be given the amount of time you had to prepare it?"

Tom felt his eyed widen in surprise; the witch had been right. "I -"

"It's my doing, Professor," Lily interrupted not about to let her partner get the credit that she was sure old Sluggy assumed was his for her genius.

With a face full of genuine surprise, the rotund teacher turned towards his newest pupil. "Your doing?"

Lily nodded. "Yes," she said before going on to explain, "I added one clockwise stir for every seven counterclockwise ones thus adding strength to the newt eyes and the addersbranch leaves."

For a moment Slughorn seemed to be frozen but, then, his face broke out into a wide smile of pure unaltered joy. "My word, Miss Claire I am impressed. Did your father teach you this?"

Lily shook her head. "No sir, I drew the conclusion on my own. Part of potions making is knowing the properties of the ingredients used to make them not just what results a combination of x list of this and that will make. The potency of newt eyes increases when stirred clockwise as does the strength of addersbranch. Adding an eighth stir after the others exploits this but doesn't interfere with the other ingredients who only respond to counterclockwise stirs."

During her explanation, Tom watched as Slughorn's eyes got wider and wider and his grin bigger and bigger so that by the time she was done, he was grinning from ear to ear and his eyes looked nearly ready to pop out of his head. Tom decided then and there that he really ought to be more careful of what he wished for; the challenge that he had so long been seeking had just appeared in the form of a red haired, green eyed witch. A witch that was, out of the corner of her eye, watching him much more penetratingly then Tom Riddle had ever been watched before by anyone other than Dumbledore.

And he didn't like it; he didn't like it at all.

When Lily was at last done with her explanation, Slughorn clapped his hands together and beamed down on her. "Excellent, excellent," he chortled, "Well done, well done; twenty points to Slytherin!"

Whispers broke out once more amongst the other students as Slughorn padded back to his desk and began telling them the homework for the evening. As the bell rang, Lily heard her new house head call out over the noise of scrapping chairs and rustling papers for her to stay before repeating the same inquiry of another witch who was, presumably also in Slytherin.

"Miss Claire, this is Miss Emily Lestrange one of our sixth year prefects," the professor informed her, nodding towards the auburn haired girl. "Miss Lestrange, I was wondering if I could count on you to make sure that our newest addition doesn't get too lost during her first few weeks. Would you be so kind?"

The girl, Emily, inclined her head almost regally and smiled at the teacher. "Of course, Professor, it would be my pleasure," she said, her tone bland. She turned her gaze towards Lily and nodded towards the door, "If you follow me, I'll take you to the common room."

With a gentle nod, Lily followed the girl from the room. They walked in silence for maybe a minute before Lily heard her companion speak.

"Your performance today was impressive you know."

Lily had an awful feeling that there was more being left unsaid. "But…"

"But," Emily said with a smirk, pleased that the new witch had been able to pick up on her allusion, "It was reckless."

Lily frowned. "Reckless?" she queried, confused, "How?"

The witch stopped walking and turned to her. "The boy you were sitting next to, Riddle, he doesn't respond too well to other people showing him up and whether you did it intentionally or not that's exactly what you did. And you did a spectacular job of it."

Lily felt her breath catch and was positive that her heart was about to burst forth from her chest. Slughorn had called the boy Tom and now Emily was telling her his name was Riddle. Merlin, Circe and all the founders that meant that the boy she'd sat next too not ten minutes ago was Tom Riddle. Lord fucking Voldemort. What had her father talked her into!? She was stuck in the past for God only knew how long – until she completed the task that she still had no idea what it was – and with the future Dark Lord for company. When Lily got back to the future she was going to kill her father.

But that wasn't important now. What was important was that she show no outward signs of panic at the information she'd just been given. Forcing a look of blank neutrality onto her face, Lily cocked her head to one side and quizzically asked, "And that's a bad thing why?"

"Because he's dangerous," Emily explained and then, with a sigh, began walking again.

"Dangerous?" Lily echoed thinking inwardly that a truer statement had never been made even as she asked aloud, "Dangerous how?"

"Dangerous in ways that you simply cannot imagine."

_I can actually_, Lily thought to herself while similarly thinking that she needed to get as much information out of this conversation as she possibly could. The more she knew about Hogwarts and how it worked, how Slytherin in particular functioned, the more chance she had of fitting in and completing her mission. It was to that end that she found herself commenting, "He's a student, a sixth year like us. I sincerely doubt that he's that terrifying."

This time, when she stopped walking, Emily took the time to study the new witch as perhaps she should have in the first place. Appearance aside, the girl looking back at her had an air of confidence to her that very few other than Riddle and a couple older students from other houses possessed. She was, Emily realized, probably very powerful. That didn't mean that she shouldn't be afraid of Riddle nor cautious of him when he was near. She should be; it simply wasn't advisable not to be. Tom Riddle was a dark one and more dangerous at seventeen then most fully realized adult wizards. Of course she didn't know this and she most likely wouldn't believe it without some sort of proof. Emily was loath to talk about such things as many of Riddle's darkest doings had become taboo, but she was astute enough to know that Lily needed a reason to head her warning or else she wouldn't last long in Slytherin.

"Tom Riddle came to Hogwarts and changed everything," Emily began to explain, her voice hushed. "Before our first year, Slytherin house was traditionally ruled by the old families and anyone that supported them. Now, however, we've all been forced to let Riddle, who no matter what he protests or how he postures is _not_ a pureblood, into our midst where he's established himself as our equal; as one of us. None of us want him there but we've got little say in the matter. He's got something, a sort of sway, over all of us and while we've all tried to get out from under his thumb it's nearly impossible to do so. He's got followers, people from the lesser families that see him as a sort of leg up into our circle; if he can do it then so can they. The point is that he got to where he is by the power of fear and intimidation and if you want to survive in this house Lily, then you have to be cautious of him. He can and he will hurt you if he thinks you're going to disrupt his order. He worked very hard to arrange us as he likes us, it won't do if one of his pieces starts to move on its own."

_How comforting_, Lily whispered, inwardly as she took in all of Emily's explanation. Somehow, it didn't come as quite a shock to her that Tom Riddle ruled his house with fear and spite. What did surprise her was that there was clearly a division within the house of Slytherin. She'd always thought that out of all the houses the house of snakes was the most unified. It was held together by a collective arrogance and a shared sense of supremacy. Apparently, while this might yet still be true, there was more to it than just that. Tom Riddle was hated by the pureblood aristocracy but had somehow managed to force them into accepting him thus elevating his own stature. This, Lily realized, was something that her father _didn't_ know. If he had, she would've heard about it when she was ten and had first gone through Voldemort 101. This she could use.

"I am not a chess piece and I refuse to be treated as one," Lily bit out angrily, using just the right balance of arrogance and pride in her conviction. "If he tries to make me one I assure you it will be his mistake."

Emily's eyes widened in horror at the very thought. "You can't challenge him!" she cried desperately, trying to make the witch see reason. "Lily you don't know what he can do!"

"And he doesn't know what _I_ can do," eyes flashing, Lily looked at the witch whom, if she played her cards right, could become a very powerful ally. Maybe even a friend. "I know that I'm new and that, granted, I know next to nothing about Hogwarts' social politics and leanings but I can assure you that what works as intimidation on some of you won't work on me. My father is arguably the most dangerous wizard alive at the moment and his enemies, the ones responsible for my being sent here, are by far more dangerous than a sixteen year old boy. If I can hold them off, I think I can manage whatever Mr. Riddle might try to throw at me."

"Riddle's seventeen actually," Emily corrected meekly, the venom in Lily's voice had been shocking. Maybe she didn't have as much to fear as most but she still should be afraid. It was a pity that she would most likely only learn of this the hard way. Still, at least until Riddle decided to go after her, Emily could provide her with some measurement of support. "Don't say I didn't warn you when he tries to hex you nine ways into next Wednesday."

"Noted," Lily replied as, together, the two witches started walking again. They turned another corner and then came to what looked like a dead end. Emily stopped in front of a benign stretch of blank wall.

"Serpensortia."

The wall didn't appear to do anything and so Lily was surprised when, a moment later, Emily just walked through it. Surmising that the entrance to the Slytherin common room wasn't unlike the entrance to platform 9 and ¾, Lily took a deep breath and then followed. After a short trip through a narrow hallway that turned twice, she came out into what was to be her home for however long it took her to do whatever it was she was supposed to do. Not for the first time, in mentally cursed her father and Draco for being so damned vague.

"Well," Emily asked from beside her. Lily glanced at her, "What do you think?"

She looked around. There were stone steps leading down into the common room proper and the room itself was moderately long with impressive stone columns and a high, vaulted ceiling. At the bottom of the stairs to her left was a notice board and next to that was a very large, very grand looking fireplace. In front of the fireplace were situated two black couches with a black ebony coffee table in between. Beyond the couches and the fire was a large round table for doing homework at and beyond that were three windows out of which the eerie green waters of the black lake could be seen. To Lily's right at the bottom of the stairs was a chess table and a portrait of a smug looking wizard holding a skull. Just beyond that was an opening that looked to be a kind of hallway that led, Lily guessed to the dormitories.

"It's certainly opulent," Lily confessed, answering Emily's earlier question. In truth, her answer didn't quite cut it. Her dad and Uncle Ron had told her that the Slytherin common room was dark and depressing and so that was what she'd been expecting. This, however, was not that. A grander room Lily had never seen in her life.

"Wait until you see the rest," Emily smirked, leading the way towards the corridor branching off the common room's right wall. "Come on, the dormitories are this way."

As before, Lily followed and when she first saw the interior of the hallway they were now walking down, she couldn't help but to have her eyes widen in awe. To her left were three floor to ceiling windows evenly spaced along the long wall and flanked by matching stone pillars. The windows, like the ones in the common room proper, showed the waters of the Black Lake and, as she passed them, Lily thought she saw a mermaid swim by. The ceiling was high and arched, easily two stories, and when they reached the end of it Lily saw a staircase that went up and another, smaller, seating area that had two couches, a rug, and an impressive looking winged back chair.

"The boys dorms are here on the ground floor," Emily began to explain, cutting off Lily's observations. She pointed off to the right at the narrow corridor that ran down the east wall, "The hall makes a U which will take you to all seven dorms," she then pointed at a door in the wall across from the staircase, "That's the boy's bathroom."

Lily nodded in comprehension, "So, its girl's upstairs."

"Yes," Emily confirmed and then started to climb. "The stairs are bewitched to turn into a slide after the landing," the girls achieved it and then turned and continued climbing. When they reached the top, Emily indicated where the girl's bathroom was (right above the boys) and then started down the narrow hallway and followed it all the way around the U to the other side where the sixth year dorm was second to last at the very end.

"Home at last," Lily murmured as she took her first step inside her new room. The area was large and square with no windows and lit both with the Slytherin standard stone brackets and with magical lamps which sat on all the bedside tables. The beds themselves all had four posts and were made out of ebony wood fashioned with forest green curtains and bedclothes. Each bed was flanked by a table and an armoire. Trunks sat at the foot of each bed except for the one to the left of the door which Lily took to be hers.

"Do you have any idea as to when your trunk might arrive?"

"No," she replied. "My father left with Dumbledore before my sorting to see to getting my things. Being homeschooled, it wasn't guaranteed that I would be in sixth year, Dippet had me tested first. And then I had to ask for classes."

Nodding absentmindedly, Emily watched the red haired witch continue to appraise the room. At last, she said, "So, what do you think?"

Taking a seat on her new bed, Lily folded her hands in her lap and sighed. "It's not what I expected but it'll do."

"You'll get used to it," Emily assured her.

"I'm sure I will."

The door suddenly opened and both girls looked up to see a witch, who looked slightly younger than them, enter fluidly. She had blonde hair and held her head in a way that screamed that she was a member of one of the old houses. Nobody else could manage to look so effortlessly conceited and yet beautiful and sweet all at the same time.

"Cassie," Emily greeted. She frowned. "What do you want?"

"Abraxas is at the bottom of the stairs demanding that the two of you come down," the new comer announced, her tone bored but with an underlying current of amusement. Her clear bottle-green eyes gracefully slid to the side and landed on Lily. "He wants to meet you."

Lily lifted one eyebrow in response and asked, "And how do I know that I want to meet him?"

Cassie looked at her a moment and then smirked, her eyes dancing. "Oh I like you," she said before adding, "But really, my brother's not that bad and knowing him is to your advantage."

"Oh?" Lily asked, remembering how Draco had once told her that the strongest friendships were those that had been alliances first, "How so?" She hoped that the girl would tell her that it was because Abraxas was a Malfoy (he was Draco's grandfather actually, if you wanted to be specific) because Lily couldn't just accept the invitation and give that as her reason without seeming to know more than she should about people she's never met.

She was not disappointed. "He's a Malfoy."

"Well then," she stood and nodded to the two witches. "Lead the way."

"We needed to go down anyway," Emily remarked as they left the dorm. "Dinner will be starting soon and I had to skip lunch today in order to finish that Transfiguration essay that's due tomorrow. I don't know about you but I'm dreadfully hungry."

It was an excuse to disguise her willingness to bow to Abraxas' demand and Lily knew it. She said nothing however as the three girls reached the stairs and started down. At the bottom they were met by a wizard that looked so much like Draco that Lily had to keep herself from running forwards and hugging him. He was younger than her godfather of course and looked like the pictures she'd seen of him while he'd still been at Hogwarts. The only difference that Lily could see was in the length of their hair. Draco had always kept his hair short; his grandfather's hair was longer and just brushed his shoulders. Lily would've thought that hair like that would look something like Snape's but, on Abraxas Malfoy, it just made him look distinguished and powerful.

Very powerful.

"Ladies," the wizard greeted, eyes sweeping over them each in turn before coming to rest on Lily. "Milady," he bowed to her. Straightening, he gave her an easy smile. "How do you find our house so far?"

"Accommodating," she answered smartly before drifting her gaze to Emily. "You said something about dinner?"

The witch smiled, pleased with how Lily had met Abraxas. Other than her disregard for the warning Emily had given her about Riddle, the red haired witch had behaved in a manner very befitting their house. Yes, she would do well here, Emily decided, the beginnings of an alliance already forming even in the short time that she had been here. "Shall we then?"

Cassie broke off saying something about going to find Cygnus while Lily turned and asked if Abraxas would like to join them.

"It would be my pleasure," he replied, following both witches out of the common room and towards the great hall.

Upon their arrival, they sat near the center of the long Slytherin table and Lily took the time to look around. Like everything else she'd seen so far, the great hall was impressive and Lily tried to keep her awe in check as she dutifully filled her plate and then began to eat. She'd taken no more than three bites before she heard Abraxas begin to speak from next to her.

"Your performance in potions today was impressive," the blond wizard was saying while Lily tried desperately not to groan, "Foolish, yes, but impressive."

With a sigh she set down her fork. "May I assume that this is another warning about Mr. Riddle?" she asked bluntly, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

Abraxas glanced at Emily over the top of Lily's head. "You already warned her?"

She nodded. "After class."

"Hmm," Abraxas murmured, pouring himself a goblet of pumpkin juice and taking a drink, he looked at Lily. "And you're not convinced?" The look she shot him was answer enough and he snorted, setting his goblet back down in front of his plate. "Give it a week, then he'll have something on you same as he's got on everyone else."

Her response was terse. "I very much doubt it but he's more than welcomed to try."

"Lily," Emily whispered pleadingly, "You really should be careful around Riddle."

Lily was still unmoved. "I refuse to be afraid of him," she said sternly, "My father taught me better than that."

"Your father's a curse breaker right?" Abraxas mused, suddenly having an idea about why the witch was so irrationally confidant. "Is that why you think you shouldn't be afraid?" he shook his head at the folly of her self-confidence. "Well your father's not here, he can't protect you."

"I don't need my father to protect me," Lily asserted harshly, "I can assure you that I am more than capable of taking care of myself."

"How?" Abraxas asked. "If Riddle suddenly decided to attack you -"

"Then I'd attack him back," Lily countered. "Honestly, I've been dueling since I was ten. If I can hold my own against grown wizards and the occasional auror as a sparing partner I think I can handle one teenage boy."

"Riddle's not like normal teenage boys. If he comes after you, he comes after you sideways, getting others to do the work for him so that it can't ever be traced back to him," Abraxas muttered before adding, a note of skepticism in his voice, "Your father taught you how to duel when you were ten? Really?"

Lily nodded. "Yes, really," and took a sip of her pumpkin juice.

"Good grief why?" Emily asked, looking downright appalled.

"So that I could defend myself; why does one usually learn to duel?" Lily explained as though it were obvious. In her time it was, now however she was beginning to suspect that there was some sort of stigma against witches performing certain kinds of magic. The thought made her inexplicably angry.

"What in Merlin's name is wrong with you lot?"

The three of them looked up at the new wizard who then, promptly sat down across from Lily. "Lestrange," Abraxas greeted.

Taking a seat across from Malfoy, the wizard bowed his head towards each of his fellow Slytherins in turn before he turned to look at her. "Lily right?" when she nodded he continued, "Alexander Lestrange but you can call me Xander. Brilliant job in potions by the way, I was impressed."

Before Lily could tip her head and give her gratitude, another voice ripped through the momentary silence and joined in their conversation. "As was I."

The four of them looked up and espied Tom Riddle standing over them. Instantly the atmosphere became charged with tension overshadowed by caution. While the other Slytherins took to shifting their gazes away submissively, only Lily was defiant enough to continue to look Riddle in the eye.

Her bravery amused him. "I was particularly impressed with how you deviated from the book. Tell me again how you reached such a conclusion?"

Lily scoffed. "I told you, knowing the ingredients -"

"Knowing the properties of the ingredient allows you to theorize that such an alteration might work not that it will or does. You knew what the result would be; I simply wish to know how."

"How does one usually know what an outcome will be?" she asked irritably, annoyed.

Riddle looked at her. "I think that you've done it before."

"What an astute deduction."

"Is that your way of confirming it?"

"No, it's my way of saying that it's very obvious that I've brewed veritaserum before and that I'm amazed that it took you this long to figure it out."

Riddle glared at her. "It's a complicated potion, why would you have any need to brew it at all?"

Lily glared back. "Because I've lived the great majority of my life on the front lines of a war and in war it is necessary to know what your enemy knows. Therefore, believe it or not, veritaserum was actually one of the first things my father taught me to make. That and polyjuice."

Affronted at her tone and at what she had insinuated about his reasoning skills, Riddle opened his mouth to argue some more but was cut off by one Abraxas Malfoy.

"What exactly _has_ your father taught you?" he asked, effectively halting the argument she was having with Riddle who seemed particularly annoyed that he'd just been more or less shut out of their conversation as they continued on without him. "I mean, you said he taught you how to duel and we know that you're aces at potions, what all else did he teach you?"

Lily sighed. "Lots of things," she told them, "Being constantly around curse breakers and aurors meant that I could pretty much practice whatever kind of magic I wanted and have plenty of people around to tell me if I was doing it wrong."

"I can imagine," Abraxas mumbled, still ignoring Riddle who was hovering behind him like a great, agitated hippogriff. His mind traced back to their previous line of conversation. "Have you ever botched a really bad spell?"

Lily eyed him. "You mean did I ever screw up any dark arts?"

Abraxas nodded.

Lily grimaced as one particular memory floated to the front of her mind. "I had sectumsempra backfire on me once."

As one, all three wizards made a face. Emily frowned. "What's sectumsempra?" she asked.

"It's a slashing hex," Abraxas supplied before twisting around to look up at Riddle, "Either sit down or go away, you're giving me a headache."

Tom glared at him but decided to do the latter. Tossing Malfoy a look of open disdain, he uncrossed his arms, turned on his heel and stalked down to the other end of the table. When he was gone, Emily shot Abraxas an exasperated look.

He frowned. "What?"

"Abraxas!" Emily admonished, "We just warned Lily not to go around making an enemy of Riddle and here you go out of your way to just that. He's going to hex you again like he did last year."

Abraxas seemed unconcerned. "Let him," he said apathetically, "I'll just hex him back."

Lily frowned. "How is it that he gets to stand up to Riddle but I can't?" she asked, "That doesn't really seem fair."

Emily turned to her. "Lily you're a witch," she said as if that explained everything.

"So?"

Emily opened her mouth.

"There's an exception to every rule Em," Xander stalled his sister. "Let it go."

The Lestrange witch let out a huff but went back to her dinner, chastened. The rest of the meal was spent in idle chatter although Lily noticed that Riddle kept glancing at her from his end of the table. She tried not to let it upset her. She was here at Hogwarts and she'd managed to find herself in the midst of some of the most powerful people in her house. She considered that a victory and refused to let Riddle spoil it for her.

By the time Emily walked her back to their dormitory, Lily was tired enough that she was able to easily get into bed and go to sleep.

~xXx~

In the morning she woke of her own accord at a frightfully early hour. She blamed the time change but got up anyway and went about getting dressed. She'd noticed yesterday that the uniform she'd put on was vastly different than the one her mother and Aunt Hermione had worn when they'd gone to Hogwarts. Their uniform had consisted of a skirt and jumper combo with loose fitting robes while the uniform Lily would have to wear consisted of the same standard oxford shirt and tie but with a tea-length black pinafore dress and tailed robes with bell sleeves. Honestly Lily liked her uniform better.

When she was dressed, she went to the mirror on top of her armoire and stood in front of it so that she could fix her hair. Rather then cut it like she knew was the current style, Lily had chosen to leave it long. Her preferred method of hair detainment was a ponytail but she knew that witches from now were supposed to look a little more put together then that so she opted for a sort of bun gathered at the nape of her neck. Jabbing her wand at her hair in order to make sure it stayed, she cast a few basic beauty charms and then left her dormitory after first slipping on her shoes.

The common room was deserted as were the corridors and Lily didn't see anyone until she had made it to the great hall. There, at each of the house tables, were those students that, like her, tended to get up early for whatever reason. The house with the most awake students was Ravenclaw, followed by Gryffindor, then Hufflepuff and, lastly, Slytherin. As Lily made her way over to her table, she glanced along its surface and noted that other than herself and what looked like a particularly studious third year, the only other person awake at this hour was Tom Riddle.

And he was watching her.

In a gallant effort to prove to herself as well as anyone that might be watching that she wasn't going to let the boy that would be Voldemort intimidate her, Lily held her head high as she walked down the length of the table to where he sat and took the seat across from him. She could feel Riddle's eyes on her the entire time but opted to ignore it. It wasn't until a cup had appeared in front of her that she designed to talk to him at all and then it was only to ask him to pass the sugar.

The request surprised him so much so that Tom did it without really thinking about it. Pushing the little tub towards her he watched her catch it, lift out three cubes and stir them into her tea before returning to ignoring him again. They stayed that way until the hall began to fill up around them at which time Tom polished off his toast and then looked up to see Lily studying him over the rim of her teacup.

"Yes?"

Lily looked at him. He didn't look evil but then, it was often said that looks were deceiving and in Tom Riddle's case this had never been more true. He was handsome; with jet black hair, dark eyes, a pale, well-formed face and generously proportioned body, there was nothing about the boy sitting in front of her that indicated the monster that he would one day become. She blinked and took herself back from her thoughts; the last thing she needed to be doing was admiring the view that was the teenaged Voldemort.

"Nothing," she said, dropping her eyes back down to her plate.

"You're lying."

She shrugged, seemingly unconcerned. "If you say so."

Her answer infuriated him but before he could speak, he heard a voice call out Lily's name and then they were descended upon by both Lestranges and Abraxas Malfoy. Tom got up and left, in no mood to put up with Abraxas Malfoy if he did not have to.

In his wake, Abraxas turned towards Lily, "You chased him away," he said, sounding almost proud. Emily and Xander groaned.

Lily smirked. "Actually, I think you did that," she told the blond wizard, "I get this distinct impression that Riddle doesn't like you."

Abraxas grinned. "I don't know what you're talking about Miss Claire," he said with mock sincerity, "Riddle and I are great friends, simply the best." His companions all snickered in amusement. "Say," he continued, "Speaking of my best mate, what were you two talking about before we –"

"Ah, Miss Claire," their head of house interrupted, descending upon their group from the high table jovially. "I have your timetable here for you," he handed her a small card followed by a small envelope,

She peered questioningly up at him. "Professor?" she asked.

Slughorn smiled down at her. "Oh, that. Just an invitation to a little club I keep going. We meet every third weekend on Saturday; I would be absolutely tickled pink if you'd say you agree to go."

Lily fought the urge to grimace; she'd just been invited to the Slugclub. And she'd only been here a day, not even. "Thank you sir," she forced herself to say, adding a smile for effect. "It would be my pleasure."

Slughorn twittered excitedly before scurrying off. Now repressing the urge to growl, Lily looked down at her schedule: _Potions, Transfigurations, Defense, Arithmacy_, _Ancient Runes_, _Charms, Domestic Magic_ – her eyes widened. "What in Merlin's name is Domestic Magic?" she demanded hotly.

Emily supplied the answer. "It's a witches class, you know, so that we'll know how to manage a household after we've been married."

Lily made a face. "That's what house-elves are for."

Across from her, the wizard's snorted at the witch's obvious outrage. Of all the things he could imagine a curse breaker teaching his daughter, how to sew was not one of them. Lily was going to despise the class of that Abraxas and Xander were most certain.

Emily shrugged. "It's really not that bad."

Lily snorted. "We'll see," she replied blandly although she was already secretly dreading it. Again, what had she let her father talk her into?

Emily looked at the clock on the wall behind the head table. "We should get going," she announced while looking over Lily's shoulder at her time card, "You have Transfiguration first period with Xander and Abraxas, I've got Herbology," she looked at her brother and Malfoy, "You'll show her where to go won't you?"

They both nodded. "But of course," Abraxas said grandly smiling at Lily.

Emily rolled her eyes. "Idiot," she shot at him.

Malfoy stuck his tongue out at her.

Lily smirked and let her friend lead her back to the common room to get her books and school robes before meeting back up with Xander and Abraxas outside the common room. Splitting up, Lily and the wizards headed towards the Transfiguration wing while Emily headed for the greenhouses.

"So what's Dumbledore like as a teacher?" Lily asked as they walked. Her parents had only ever told her stories about what he'd been like as a Headmaster and, admittedly, she was curious.

Xander shrugged. "Well, he's the head of Gryffindor but you wouldn't know it from the way he treats up. Pretty fair wizard old Dumbles is. You'll like him I think."

Lily nodded and entered the classroom taking a seat between the two wizards at desk in the middle on the left side of the room. They chatted amicably as they waited for the rest of the class to filter in. Riddle was last and, after casting an indistinguishable look towards the three of them which Lily knew was meant for her, he sat down behind them and turned his eyes front as Dumbledore walked up and waved his hands for everyone to quiet down.

"Today," he began, "We will be beginning our unit on human transfigurations. Now, can anyone tell me why we study this? What would be one of the benefits in knowing how to outwardly change your appearance?"

Several people in the class raised their hands but Riddle, Lily noted, was not one of them. She frowned; thinking it odd given the character of the boy or at least of the character that he put such effort into presenting. Surly he would want to show his superiority by…

"Yes, Mr. Stevens," Dumbledore said, calling on a boy in the back of the room. Lily turned and saw that the boy was a Gryffindor.

"Well, if somebody were after you and you didn't have any polyjuice handy, spelling yourself different would be a nifty trick I reckon," the boy, Stevens, answered.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled and Lily guessed that Stevens must've given him the right answer. "Yes," the professor said, "Well done Mr. Stevens," he turned to face the class, "Potions that change your appearance, while much more effective as a whole are time consuming to make and often are not on hand when you are in a time of need. As such, there are other ways of avoiding unwanted detection by simply changing one or more of your features. Even something so simple as altering your hair color could be effective. Oft times when one is looking for something hard enough they tend to overlook small details that would otherwise be obvious to anyone else."

Looking out across the class, Dumbledore raised his wand and swished it once causing the rows of desks to disappear and be replaced by small tables. "Gather into groups of three or four, if you'd please," he instructed them, raising his voice over the din of scrapping chairs and rustling book bags, "Today we will be practicing by attempting to alter the natural hair color of those around you. If at all I would like you to try the incantation silently. Begin."

Lily looked expectantly between Xander and Abraxas. "Who wants to go first?" she asked.

Abraxas grinned and flicked his wand. Lily felt a trickle run over her head as if someone had doused her in ice water and then quickly transfigured one of her spare quills into a small mirror. Peering at her reflection, she snickered at her hair which was now the exact same shade as Malfoy's.

"Brilliant," she congratulated him, picking up her own wand, "My turn."

Abraxas crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair unconcernedly. "Fire away," he told her, "Just don't make it anything too embarrass -"

"Hey Malfoy," a Gryffindor called from the other side of the room, "Nice hair."

The wizard glared at him. "Stuff it Trevor," he growled before taking up Lily's mirror and looking down. His eyes widened and he let out an undignified sounding squeak. "What did you do to me witch!?" he snarled playfully at Lily who had dissolved into giggles at the look of terror on his face, "I look like a Weasley!"

"Hey!" another Gryffindor shouted from across the room, Lily was going to go on a hunch here and say that he either was a Weasley or was somehow related. She knew he wasn't her grandfather; Septimus hadn't started his first year of Hogwarts until 1945. Therefore, she felt no need to stick up for him and went back to enjoying the look of abject horror on Abraxas' face.

"I can add freckles if you'd like," she teased watching his already pale face blanch farther.

"You won't dare!"

Lily smirked.

Xander barked with laughter. "Do it. Oh Merlin, please do it," he begged, "I want to see his face."

"No!" Abraxas wailed although there was a glint in his grey eyes that told Lily he knew she wouldn't do it and that her teasing was all meant in fun. "I'll do anything; _anything_!"

Lily sighed dramatically. "Well, since it means so much to you," she said, going through a show of setting her wand down on the table.

Abraxas sighed in mock relief and then rounded on Xander whose merriment at his friend's misfortune stopped the instant he realized that his normally chocolate brown locks had turned orange.

"Malfoy!"

Lily took one look the both of them and burst into laughter. At the table next to them, Tom turned to observe them out of the corner of his eye, a slight frown twisting his perfect mouth downwards. In a mere matter of hours, Lily had managed to find herself a place amongst the two most powerful and influential families in Slytherin. It had taken him nearly three years to unravel enough of their secrets so that, when he approached them for acceptance into their circle at the start of his fourth year, they hadn't been able to refuse him. It annoyed him that they would be so accepting of Lily after so little a time.

"Mr. Riddle."

Startled out of his thoughts, Tom hid is surprise and turned to look up into the scrutinizing gaze of his least favorite professor. "Yes Professor?"

Dumbledore looked down on the dark boy that looked for all the world to be an innocent when he was in reality anything but. Over the past year both of them had fallen into a kind of game, not unlike chess, with each of them trying to see what the other was attempting to do without revealing their own strategy. Dumbledore was aware of the fact that out of all of his students, Tom Riddle was closest to being his equal just as he was also aware that Tom knew it. The knowledge that he was just as clever, just as powerful and just as skilled as a wizard triple his experience and age made the young wizard more arrogant then he was already predisposed to be and it made playing this game with him tiring and at times maddening but yet; he could not simply walk away.

"I cannot help but notice that your appearance remains unchanged," he began, the normal twinkle in his eyes gone as he gazed down on the Slytherin prefect. "Since that is the point of today's lesson, perhaps you would be so kind as to tell me why both your partner's hair has been changed but yours has not?"

The real answer was that both Yaxley and Nott were simply too afraid of him to try and alter his appearance but Tom could not very well say that and so went with, "I believe that they're both having difficulty with the incantation, Professor."

Dumbledore frowned and turned to both Mr.'s Yaxley and Nott. "Is this true?" he asked them knowing full well that Riddle had changed their hair and that they had changed each other's but that neither boy had been so bold as to try the spell on their leader.

Nervously, both Slytherins shook their heads. "N-no," Yaxley ventured, "W-we can't seem to get -"

"Then perhaps we should let another try their hand?" Dumbledore suggested and watched as the expression on Riddle's face darkened. Careful observation had yielded him the knowledge that perhaps the boy's greatest fear was being made to look a fool. If he was the center of attention for having achieved some great deed then that was one thing but to be put on the spot because of a folly or a mistake – or having his hair's color changed against his will – was quite another matter.

Dumbledore wondered what his reaction would be and, more importantly, who in the room was brave enough to even attempt it. A thought occurred to him.

"Miss Claire," the Professor called, turning to the table of Slytherins behind him. The witch looked up, "You did such an excellent job on Mr. Malfoy perhaps you would like to try with Mr. Riddle?"

Grinning sadistically at the opportunity that had been handed to her, Lily stood and faced her target who she found glaring at her with a look sour enough to curdle milk. Her eyes dancing with defiance, Lily raised her wand and flicked it in Riddle's direction before sitting back down and looking up at Dumbledore.

The old wizard was beaming at her.

"Twenty points to Slytherin," he said, ignoring the outraged gasps from his Gryffindor's and the surprised squeaks from their opposing house. Reaching into his robes he pulled out a small, round mirror and enlarged it before holding it up so that Riddle could see his reflection.

The moment he saw himself, Tom's mask slipped as he felt first embarrassment and then awkwardness flash through him. Instead of picking a more traditional hair color such as auburn or blond – either of which would've still looked ridiculous on him given his skin coloring – Lily had gone with a more radical change. His hair was blue, bright blue; almost turquoise. It was also sticking up on end making it look as though he had just gotten out of the shower and towel dried his head.

A sound broke shattered the silence and Tom rapidly became aware that all eyes were on him and that someone, although he could not see who, was laughing at him. Suddenly the embarrassment and humiliation vanished and were replaced by an almost all consuming rage. He pushed it back however as he sternly reminded himself of his current location; hexing Lily into oblivion in front of Dumbledore would not bode well for him. Tom therefore forced his face back into submission and made himself look up into the eyes of the person responsible for his mortification.

The witch Lily Claire.

"Well done," he congratulated his voice tight while, mentally, he was cursing her seven ways into next Wednesday.

She smiled sadistically at him and then turned expectantly towards Dumbledore.

"Continue your practice until the bell then, for your homework I want two feet on the advantages of human transfiguration," and with that Dumbledore walked back to his desk and sat down to observe for the remainder of the hour.

While Lily went back to her table and they congratulated her on her performance with Riddle, "That was brilliant!" he heard Abraxas say, Tom aimed his wand at his head and muttered the counter spell.

Nothing happened.

He tried again; still no change.

He cursed. The bloody witch had added a signature to her spell so that she was the only one that could remove it. Knowing this, Tom seethed in his seat until the bell rang at which time he got up and made a beeline towards Lily.

The witch started as she felt a hand clamp down on her arm and twist it so that she was forced to face her captor. Her eyes widened but the tiniest fraction when she saw who it was but would not allow herself to show any indication that she was afraid.

"Yes?"

Tom hissed and leaned closer to her. "You added a signature," he growled. "Remove it."

At the door, Abraxas and Xander turned back having realized that Lily was not with them. Spotting her standing so close to Riddle, they immediately knew that something was wrong. Starting forwards, they were stopped by Yaxley and Nott.

"Move," Abraxas ordered, not at all in the mood to be manhandled by Riddle's cronies.

"Riddle just has some business with the Lady," Yaxley supplied. "It won't take long."

Abraxas growled. "I don't care, get out of my -"

"No."

This last was spoken not by Yaxley or Nott but by Lily and all four of the Slytherins turned to see the witch wrenching her arm out of Riddle's grasp and then turning to walk away. She didn't get far and, what happened next stunned them all speechless and would be something they talked about for days.

Lily had taken no more than three steps before she was captured, turned and yanked backwards only to then be pulled right up against one very angry Tom Riddle whose eyes had narrowed to slits and had a sort of red gleam to them.

"Change me back," he hissed his voice dangerous, promising terrible things if the witch did not comply.

Rather than be terrified as she knew she should be, Lily instead felt angry. Angry at him for thinking that he could so easily intimidate her, angry for who he was and what he'd become and angry, so very angry, for being stuck here with him until she managed God only knew what so that she could go home. She reacted, lashing out by lifting her knee suddenly and forcefully upwards.

In a matter of seconds Riddle went from being in control of the situation to being an excruciating amount of pain. His eyes widening in surprise and agony he had no choice but to release Lily's arms, staggering away from her before sinking unceremoniously to the ground. Squeezing his eyes shut and gritting his teeth, Tom fought through the pain and tried to think. But he couldn't, it hurt too much. Gods, he would give anything to just make it go away.

"What did you do to him!?" Yaxley demanded, watching as his leader went down and then stayed down. Riddle's back was to them so he didn't have a clue what she'd done to him but whatever it was, it was bad. He glared at the red haired witch. "Undo it!"

Lily glared back. "Undo his hair? No, I think I'll leave that; a little humility will do your precious master good," she spat. "As to the other, get him some ice and a pain reliever potion and he'll be fine. There should be no lasting damage," she made to walk away but then paused and added as an afterthought, "Although, I did hit him pretty hard. You might want to help him to the infirmary and make sure that I didn't accidently damage his plumbing."

It took a minute but, eventually the wizards got the reference. Abraxas figured it out first and rather than grimace at the thought, grinned and let out a shout of laughter. "Ha!"

Yaxley and Nott were next and their faces turned first white and then red before both of them went tripping over themselves to get to Riddle only to be pushed away with an angry hiss. Meanwhile Lily walked out the door with Xander and Abraxas following her.

"That was brilliant!" Abraxas chortled as they walked towards their next class.

Lily smirked.

Xander frowned. "Where did Dumbledore go?" he asked, confused about the professor's sudden and quite conspicuous absence during the whole happening. "Normally when stuff like this happens he's right there; it's like he vanished as soon as class let out."

Abraxas snorted. "Who cares?" he asked, rounding a corner and then turning to look Lily, "What class do you have next?" he asked.

"Charms."

"So do we and so does Em," Xander said, "Let's go meet her before we go up shall we?"

"We can tell her what happened," Abraxas announced with glee, "Come on you lot, walk faster. I want to see her face when we teller her that Lily…"

The blond wizard's voice was lost in the crowd as he marched ahead of them. Glancing at one another, Lily and Xander grinned and hurried to catch up.

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**A/N:** Reviews are the only way that fan-fic writers get paid so put a quarter in my cup and make my day!


	4. A Line in the Sand

**A/N: **Here you go guys, you've no idea how difficult this chapter was being. Okay maybe you do given the amount of time between this update and the last one. Either way: read, review and enjoy.

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**Chapter Four: A Line in the Sand **

As it turned out Emily wasn't quite as enthusiastic about Lily's humiliation of Riddle as Abraxas thought she'd be. Instead of praising the witch for her actions Emily had launched herself into an hour long lecture. "What in Merlin's name were you thinking!?" she ranted, berating her friend while her brother and Abraxas looked helplessly on, "How do you not understand that Riddle is dangerous; that he is not to be provoked!?"

"Emily, really, I don't think it's quite as bad as you – "

"And you two!" Emily snapped, rounding on the wizards who had stood by and let this all happen without ever trying to stop it. "How could you let her engage him like that? Have six years in the same house taught you nothing!? Riddle doesn't just take these things lying down he's going to retaliate; he's going to come after her! For Merlin's sake she physically assaulted him! How do you imagine he's going to take it!?"

Abashedly, both wizards had looked at their shoes. "Not well."

"Exactly," Emily agreed before returning to Lily having found her second wind. The focus of the lecture then shifted to the inappropriateness of it and how Lily had breached the barriers of acceptable behavior by acting in such a way. Lily, of course, protested ardently against Emily's disdain but her friend would not be dissuaded. The argument ended when Abraxas, who had noticed Lily's temper beginning to rise, intervened on her behalf and dragged her off to the library with him to help him with his homework.

Lily thanked him profusely for it.

"It's no problem," he said shrugging off her gratitude as he led her to an unoccupied table in the back of the library and sat down. Taking out his charms book Abraxas began working on his essay while the witch across from him cooled off and let her anger diminish.

Then she spoke. "Is he really going to come after me?"

Abraxas looked up from his charms work. "Probably."

Lily frowned. "So Emily was right, I shouldn't have done it."

The wizard shook his head. "No, it needed to be done. Riddle is far too used to getting his way through intimidation and fear. I'm glad you did it and, despite what she says, so is Emily. Her problem isn't with _what_ you did it's with _how_ you did it."

"I attacked him," Lily said beginning to understand as her mind went back over the second half of Emily's lecture, "Proper young witches don't knee wizards who threaten them in the bollocks do they?"

The blond wizard snickered. "Witches – proper or not – don't do what you did to Riddle today and therein lays Emily's true concern. You don't behave the way she thinks you ought to, the way she was raised to believe that witches _should_ act. The Lestranges are an old house and have been around forever but their place in wizarding high society is relatively new. Their fortune is less than a decade old and so is the social stature that having it has gained them. Emily's parents, and to a certain extent Emily herself, are terrified of falling out of favor and losing their new found prestige."

"So appearance and propriety are everything," Lily nodded, understanding. She frowned, "What about Xander? He was almost as thrilled about what I did to Riddle as you. If his family's that big on appearances shouldn't I have gotten the same lecture from him?"

Abraxas shook his head. "Xander doesn't have the same amount of social pressure on him that his sister does."

"Why not?" she asked confusedly.

The blond wizard took a deep breath. "It's an unfortunate truth that the future prospects for a young witch are entirely based upon whether or not she can marry well. If Emily's too outspoken or if her views err on the side of radical her prospects for a good match will dwindle. It's a game of faces and, unfortunately, Emily has to play it and play it well if she ever hopes to make her parents or herself happy."

Lily made a face. "That's horrible."

"It's no bloody picnic that's for sure."

The witch sighed and looked imploringly at Abraxas, feeling her pride burn like bile down the back of her throat as she forced herself to ask, "What about me? If that's the way the game is played, maybe I should take Emily's advice and tone it down a little? I mean, I suppose I could – "

"No!" Abraxas answered abruptly cutting her off as he leveled his gaze with hers. Offended that she would even consider backing down. "You're different then Emily. You come from a different background, a different way of life then she does. Don't ever think that you have the same restrictions that everyone else does, not ever."

Such an ardent avowal made Lily both curious and suspicious. "Why not? What makes me so special?"

Abraxas, who hadn't expected Lily to question his statement, floundered for something to say. In the end he decided to go with the absolute truth. "Your first day, after potions, Emily was very obliging warning you about Riddle don't you think. And afterwards, at dinner, you immediately found a place. Slytherins aren't usually that accepting; did you ever wonder why you were the exception?"

"Yes," Lily admitted honestly. She hadn't wanted to think about it at the time. Aunt Hermione had taught her a muggle phrase about not looking gift horses in the mouth but now that Abraxas brought it up she did find herself curious. "Why did she?"

"Because I told her to."

Lily shot the wizard a look. "That's not an answer Malfoy."

Abraxas smirked. "No, but it is the truth. Emily approached you after potions because I told her to. Later I told Xander the same thing; to be kind to you, to accept you. I recognized who and what you are the minute I saw you."

Lily was nervous now not to mention more than a little suspicious. Whatever Abraxas thought he knew probably wasn't anywhere near the truth but she knew that she needed to find out what it was regardless. "Really?" she asked, one eyebrow raised in incredulity, "And what is it exactly that you think I am?"

The answer was swift. "High-clan."

Lily felt her eyes widen in shock which, thankfully, Abraxas mistook for disbelief at having been called out rather than confusion over the statement in general. "What?"

"It's true," he went on to explain, "There aren't very many of us left so all of the old families are taught to be able to recognize one another on sight. The way you present yourself, the power you exude; your blood is old, very old. I knew the minute I saw you that I wouldn't want to have you as an enemy."

"So you decided to extend the hand of friendship and make me an ally instead," Lily surmised wondering if there was any truth to his suspicions or not. She knew that in reality there probably was. The Weasleys might not be very prestigious but they _were_ purebloods and Lily thought she once remembered her mother saying something about their family going all the way back to Merlin. The Potters she knew were high-clan as she could recall the lecture that Draco had given her father on the subject the one and only time it had ever come up back when she'd first started her auror training. Still, she'd never given much thought as to what it had all meant and how it might affect her. And she'd certainly never thought that another high-clan member would've been able to pick her out of a crowd because of it. All purebloods, she realized, were obviously _not_ created equal.

Apparently it was much more complicated than that.

"Yes, exactly," Abraxas' voice interrupted her thoughts, "Unlike Riddle who is – and if you ever repeat this to anyone I'll deny I ever said it – very powerful, he's not dangerous in the same way that you or I am. Here at Hogwarts he gets by on coercion, manipulation and fear and yes, if he corners you in an empty corridor he could seriously hurt you but outside of school, in the real world, Riddle has nothing. He_ is_ nothing. You, on the other hand, have everything. That's why you don't fit into the same category as Emily. She has limits on how high she can reach, you don't."

The analogy was surprisingly easy to follow, Lily discovered. "I'm already at the top."

Abraxas nodded. "Yes."

While Lily processed this information, Abraxas went back to work on his charm's homework. In the end, once she was able to pull herself out of her thoughts, Lily helped Malfoy put the finishing touches on his essay before the two of them left the library and headed off to lunch. The rest of the day passed by quickly and without any further incidents for which Lily was eternally grateful. A warning from Abraxas prevented Emily from feeling the need to give Lily anymore sermons about proper behavior and Riddle blessedly, for the four of them at least, didn't make another appearance until halfway through dinner when he showed up sans blue hair and without any apparent difficulty walking. Both Abraxas and Xander commented on this whilst Lily snickered and Emily pursed her lips together into a fine line but otherwise made no comment. After dinner the four of them spent the rest of Friday night playing several rounds of exploding snap in the common room before trooping off to bed sometime after midnight.

Saturday was spent in the library doing homework while Sunday found Emily off to gobstones practice which Lily left alone with the wizards. They ended up having a chess tournament in the sixth year boy's dorm which annoyed Riddle to no end when he'd come up to his room only to find Lily and Xander on the latter's bed staring intently at the board between them while Abraxas watched. The disgruntled boy had tried to have her evicted but to no avail and was eventually forced to take his books and leave. Abraxas had laughed about it afterwards and commented that Lily should hang around their room more often if her mere presence was enough to make Tom Riddle flee. Although by mutual agreement the three of them decided not to inform Emily of this newest development. All in all it was an enjoyable and pleasant weekend one that, for Lily, cemented her place both in this time and in the company of her new found companions.

Monday came much too quickly for the young witch's liking and with it the knowledge that, after breakfast, Lily would have to force herself to sit through what she just knew was going to be the most degrading, despicable, most horrid class ever to have been invented. Even worse than history: Domestics.

"But why?" Lily wailed over her waffles a disgusted, disgruntled look on her face. "What could they _possibly_ have to teach us that we need a whole bloody class for?"

Xander adopted a thoughtful expression. "You know," he said, "I've wondered that a time or two myself." He turned to his sister, "Emily, what do they teach you in domestics besides your basic cleaning spells because I've got to tell you, I agree with Lily on not really needing a class for that. Surely you could just read a book, practice a few times and be done with it."

His twin glared at him. "There's more to it than that!"

"Like?" Abraxas prompted.

Emily huffed. "Like…like how to arrange a formal dinner or a garden party."

Xander frowned. "You need a class for that? How hard could it be? Let's see. Send out invitations, plan a menu, give directions to the house-elves and tell everyone when to show up. There, easy."

His sister shot him a contemptuous glare. "There is more to it than that Alexander Rudolphus Lestrange, much more. I would explain it to you but I'm afraid the concept would be completely lost on you."

"You're bloody well right about that," Xander agreed as he polished off his eggs and sent Lily a sympathetic look. "If planning dinner parties is as complicated as my sister seems to think it is I'm suddenly very glad that I'm not a witch. Do tell us how you get on with it," and then, very quickly, both he and Abraxas got up and left leaving Lily alone with a still simmering Emily whose attention shifted to her as soon as both wizards were out of the picture.

Lily decided to make a preemptive strike. "Save it," she said holding up a hand to belay any comments Emily might have been about to make, "Let's just go and get it over with. We'll talk about the whole thing later."

Looking very displeased Emily none the less accepted Lily's instructions, got up and walked silently back to the common room to get their robes and books before leading Lily through the hallways to the Domestics classroom. Lily looked around. The room was rather large as far as classrooms went and seemed to be made up of two areas. The front half of the room was set up like a normal classroom with two rows of desks with a teaching platform in front. The back half looked like a large commercial kitchen and as Emily made her way towards it Lily fought back the urge to groan. She was going to hate this class she could already tell.

And she did. Five minutes in Lily already wanted to strangle the teacher, Madame Lattice, and was seriously contemplating just walking out. She refrained however and managed to power through the majority of the class and was almost convinced that she'd made it until about ten minutes before the bell was to ring Madame Lattice turned her full attention onto her and Lily felt herself freeze.

"I do hope that you've been able to follow along with today's lesson Miss Claire," Lattice said, her surgery sweet voice setting Lily's teeth on edge. "Professor Dippet informed me that because of your mother's death at such a young age your education has been mostly left up to your father's preferences. I understand that this is probably all very new to you but, rest assured, with the proper dedication and work we'll have you caught up in no time I promise."

Lily couldn't decide if her teacher's words were meant as an insult or to be kind but, regardless, she was now the center of attention in the classroom and she did not like it. Wanting desperately to go back to being invisible, she jerked her head downwards and forced herself to smile while silently praying that the bell would hurry up and ring already. Seconds later her prayer was answered and Lily all but ran from the classroom as fast as she could; she didn't even wait for Emily who gave up calling for her after the third try and fell back to follow at a more sedate pace.

The rest of the day didn't go much better. In Defense Against the Dark Arts Lily, who was one of only two witches taking the course at N.E.W.T level, was positively outraged when Professor Merrythought assigned she and Glenda Marshall theory work while the rest of the class, all wizards, practiced dueling. Out of disgust, Lily had protested which had resulted in a twenty point loss for Slytherin house by the time her rant was over. Merrythought had been less than impressed, the Ravenclaws, Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs had laughed at her and Lily had responded by cursing one unlucky Ravenclaw boy with a perfectly aimed, silent, bat-bogey hex. Abraxas had laughed his arse off, Xander had grinned and by the time the lesson was over Slytherin was in the hole another twenty points.

At lunch, Emily was again indignant and, again, decided that the best way to get through to Lily was by lecturing her.

"You can't keep doing this," she protested ardently while looking across the table at her friend, "Lily, there are rules. Be glad that you even get to take Defense, until three years ago witches used to have to stop at O.W.L level. Theory work is better than nothing."

"Some dark wizard isn't going to _not_ try and kill me because I'm a witch," she argued, "If anything not knowing how to defend yourself is worse because it makes you a better target."

"Lily - "

"It's common sense!"

Emily let out a frustrated sigh and turned to her brother. "I give up," she said, "_You_ reason with her."

Xander frowned. "Why?" he asked, "I happen to agree with her."

His sister looked scandalized. "Xander!"

"What?" he asked, holding his hands up in surrender, "Em, she's right. If Grindelwald's forces were to attack right this minute who do you think they'd aim for? I'll give you a hint; it wouldn't be me and Abraxas. They'd go for the weakest targets first which, unfortunately, is anyone either under the age of thirteen or female. Not to mention, I saw Lily hex that Ravenclaw in class. Her spell was nonverbal and quick like I've never seen. Anyone who says that witches aren't able to pull off jinxes and curses is full of it. It's all ministry propaganda that the old coots in charge have been spitting out for a while now because they're afraid of change. I'm not going to apologize for admitting that the old double standard is stupid to the point of ridiculousness."

Emily turned to Abraxas. "And do _you_ agree with this?"

The look the blond wizard gave her was answer enough nodded. With a great sigh Emily finally relented. "Well maybe the standard _is_ a bit out of date but Lily it's the way things are. At the rate you're going we're going to come in last place for the house cup. Please don't push things."

"Fine," Lily bit out tersely before taking out her schedule to see what class she had after lunch. "Do either of you have Arithmacy?" she asked the wizards. Xander shook his head; Abraxas nodded.

"It's a double class," the Malfoy informed her eagerly and with a smile, "We're working on solving for the numerical value of transfigured objects versus non-transfigured objects. It's pretty fun actually."

Xander rolled his eyes and shot the Malfoy a look. "Bookworm," he accused, "You're worse than Riddle."

Abraxas looked appalled. "That it back!"

"No," said the wizard with a grin, "Not until you admit it's true."

The glare he got in return was epic; Emily and Lily both burst apart laughing their past displeasure with one another forgotten in the levity. For the rest of the meal Xander and Abraxas argued back and forth, all in good natured fun of course, until it was finally time to return to classes. The Lestrange twins headed towards the library for a study period while Abraxas led the way to the Arithmacy classroom. Lily was excited. When she'd been in Dippet's office selecting her courses she'd known immediately that she'd be taking Arithmacy. The subject wasn't one that was generally taught to the children of the resistance (ask the Scamander twins or Hugo or Rose to tell you the exponential value of a spell when multiplied by an additional wand movement and chances are their eyes would cross before they blew you off) but it had been one of Aunt Hermione's favorites and when Lily was about six she'd found one of her aunt's old textbooks and promptly demanded that someone explain it to her. Her parents had laughed at her enthusiasm and pointed her towards a suddenly overjoyed Hermione who had taken her niece aside and answered all of her questions before giving her another book to read. Arithmacy had then become something that she and her aunt always did together whenever they could find the time and Lily couldn't wait to showcase what she knew. Aunt Hermione would be so proud if when Lily got back to her own time she could tell her aunt that she'd been top of her class.

"Here we are," Abraxas announced, pulling Lily from her thoughts. "Come on, table's this way."

Lily let herself be steered to one of the four round tables that populated the room. Each table looked capable of seating about four people, five if you got cozy but somehow Lily didn't think that they'd have to worry about that. Aunt Hermione had always said that her Arithmacy classes had been small so Lily expected the same. It was a rather archaic subject.

Once she was seated, she let herself look around while Abraxas shifted his books around next to her. The classroom looked very similar to the Defense room but was shorter and much narrower. There was a spiral staircase at one end that led up to what she assumed as the Professor's office and every inch of the walls were covered in charts depicting different alphabets and their numerical values by letter. A bookcase took up the entirety of the back wall and, squinting, Lily was able to catch titles running along the spines in every language from Old English to Sanskrit. Grinning to herself she felt her excitement grow.

"Lily, Malfoy."

Her head whipped around and her eyes narrowed as Tom Riddle sat down across from them one chair left strategically vacant between them. She was about to snap at him to go sit somewhere else when she noticed that the Slytherin crest was carved into the center of the table. She groaned inwardly to herself in understanding. Instantly some of her earlier enthusiasm dissipated and she moodily flipped through the pages of her book while she waited for the class to begin. She neither acknowledged Riddle nor looked at him. As far she was concerned he wasn't there.

This annoyed him but Tom tried not to let it affect him as the door at the top of the spiral staircase opened and Professor Maycott descended, clapping her hands together in order to call the class to attention.

"Right, today we will be continuing our work on solving for the value of transfigured objects and then comparing them to the values of objects that have not been transfigured," her voice was crisp and decisive, "Pair up and begin."

Abraxas turned to Lily. "You're mine," he told her, shooting Riddle a dark look. "You're on your own Riddle."

"As I would prefer it," Tom said snidely, head already bent low over his extensive notes.

With a winning smile, Abraxas scooted his chair closer to Lily's and then began to show her where they'd left off in their last class. "So this one here…"

The two Slytherins were able to get halfway through their first problem before a Gryffindor boy's hand shot into the air and called over the Professor's attention. "Professor," Maycott looked at him and he pointed towards the Slytherins, "They're three of them. That's not fair."

The Professor frowned and turned towards the Slytherin table. All three of them looked up, her eyes landed on Lily and held. "I don't believe that I've seen you in my class before," she said, "You must be Miss Claire. I remember Horace telling me he had a new Slytherin but I don't seem to recall him telling me that you'd be taking up this class. Nevertheless, welcome. Have you ever studied Arithmacy before?"

Lily nodded. "I have, it's one of my favorite subjects."

"Is it now? Which method do you prefer?"

"Chaldean."

"Ah, and your preferred alphabet?"

"Basic Latin or possibly early Greek."

"Interesting. Which has a greater value; a transfiguration rune or a transmutation rune?"

"Transmutation."

"Very good; why?"

"Transfiguration is turning one object into another. Transmutation is an act of conjuring; constructing an object out of nothing. In a transfiguration there are no added energy requirements because the matter needed to build the desired object already exists whereas in a construct you must first summon the material needed to equate the mass of the object you wish to create. Doing this requires a greater energy input which in turn allots for a larger source number, the end numerical value also being larger."

"Correct, last question. What is the number most representable to you in your life?"

Lily smiled. "Seven."

"Why?"

She explained. "Seven represents the search for truth dominated by logic and reason. Those who are ruled by the number seven know that truth is often hidden behind illusion and that the true value of things are not necessarily the first things you see."

Professor Maycott looked impressed. "And you feel that the number seven is most applicable to you because?"

"My destiny number is seven as is my third pinnacle and first cycle. I was also born in the seventh month of the year."

"So you are a Leo then, fascinating," Maycott said, continuing to scrutinize her although Lily thought she could see a flicker of approval in the witch's eye. "I don't believe I've ever met a Slytherin born under the fifth sign. Do you have any natural affinity for the house Miss Claire?"

"Well my patronus is a snake if that's the sort of thing you mean," she offered deciding that it was probably best, at least for now, to forgo mention of the fact that like her father she could speak parseltongue. Her ability to talk to snakes was yet another reason why her cousins, Alice and the twins all thought she'd be in Slytherin. Lily smirked inwardly to herself; oh if only they could all see her now.

There were several loud gasps at the unveiling of this information. One Ravenclaw boy yelled, "You can produce a corporeal patronus!?" while another yelled out, "Prove it!"

Looking first to Maycott, who nodded, intrigued by the exchange, Lily raised her wand and lazily pointed it towards the two disbelieving Ravenclaws. _"Expecto Patronum!"_

The familiar silvery form of her patronus burst forth and slithered over towards the two wizards where it proceeded to open its mouth and hiss threateningly at the pair of them. Both boys jumped about a foot in the air and leaned back in their chairs as far away from the transparent serpent as they could get without toppling over.

"Bloody hell!" both boys exclaimed. Professor Maycott frowned.

"Language Mr. Powel, Mr. Barnett, ten points from Ravenclaw," she said causing the entire table of Ravenclaws to squawk indignantly. She turned back to Lily, Abraxas and Tom. "Fifty points to Slytherin Miss Claire now everyone, back to work. You have the next ten minutes to finish your equations from the beginning of class at which time you will turn in what you have completed to me and I shall assign you you're homework. You may begin."

Maycott walked back to her desk and sat down while Lily's attention returned to the parchment between her and Abraxas. Throughout the rest of the class she could feel Riddle looking at her as he cast her what she was sure he thought were furtive looks. She ignored them and when the bell rang, she got up, cancelled her patronus, turned in her paper and then walked out of the classroom without so much as a glance in Riddle's direction.

The twins were waiting for them at the entrance hall and together the four of them headed down to the dungeons for their last class of the day. Typically the core classes were held twice a week and it just so happened that potions was the last class for the sixth year Slytherins both on Monday and on Thursday. When they arrived Slughorn was as per usual nowhere to be found so they sat down and waited, the boys striking up a conversation about quidditch while Emily put the finishing touches on her homework and Lily took to flipping through the pages of her potions book. Five minutes later their head of house appeared and the lesson began.

"Today as you all know we will begin our study of various poisons and their antidotes," Slughorn explained jovially to the class. "Now, obviously the ideal situation is that none of you get poisoned at all but if such a fate were to befall you can anyone tell me the first thing you must do before attempting to brew an antidote?"

A Hufflepuff boy raised his hand. Slughorn called on him. "Find out the class," the boy said sounding very incredulous of his own answer.

Slughorn either didn't notice or more likely than not didn't care. "Yes," he chortled, "Exactly right. All poisons fit into one of two categories and before you even attempt to brew an antidote you must first discern which class the poison is from. Can anyone name both classes for me? Anyone?" his eyes scanned the room. "Tom m'boy, surely you can tell me?"

"Of course Professor," Riddle replied coolly, "The two classes of poisons are neurotoxins and hemotoxins. Neurotoxins target the victim's nervous system causing excitation – cramps, vomiting, convulsions – or depression – paralysis, respiratory or cardiac depression or arrest. A hemotoxin which is sometimes called a blood poison, breaks down the victim's tissues, usually by either preventing or causing the blood to clot or it destroy the blood completely. Most poisons contain both types but only one is dominant."

Slughorn beamed at him. "Excellent answer, yes, quite thorough; ten points to Slytherin. Now, today's class will be spent learning how to distinguish which poisons are neurotoxins and which are hemotoxins. There are several ways to do this and it is up to you to decide which one to use so, pair up with whomever is sitting next to you – there's an uneven number, oh dear," the rotund professor looked around, his eyes alighting on a possible solution. "Miss Lestrange, would you mind terribly working in a group with both your brother and Mr. Malfoy? No, very good then. Miss Claire please go sit with Mr. Riddle. There you go, all settled, very good; you all have thirty minutes. Go."

Emily, Abraxas and Xander all shot Lily apologetic looks as she got up and moved herself to the back of the classroom where she practically threw her things onto the desk before sitting down heavily next to a scowling boy Voldemort who was now sitting in his chair much more stiffly then normal. "Let's just get this over with," she growled, snatching up one of two vials that had been placed on every desk. It was filled with a bluish-green liquid and had the viscosity of cold syrup. She knew exactly what it was. "This is liquidated hemlock."

Tom glanced at her not at all happy that the witch was once more somewhere in his immediate vicinity. He was even less pleased when she had leaned forwards to pick up the vial because it had seriously diminished the amount of space between them. The last time she'd been that close to him she'd caused him physical pain and Tom hated to admit it but he was weary that she might do so again. "Are you certain?" he asked frowning as he lent away from her. All she had done was picked it up and looked at it; no diagnostic spells had been cast, no substance tests had been applied. It irritated him that she could be so sure of herself without first going through the approved method of application.

Lily glared at him. "I am."

Even though the look in her eyes warned him not to ask her again, Tom found himself unwilling to let the matter go. "How certain?"

The witch's already limited control where Riddle was concerned snapped. "As certain as I am that you have a broomstick shoved sideways up your arse which makes your personality generally abhorrent and abrasive to anyone with half a functioning brain! Now can we move on or would you like to ask me one more time if I'm certain that this is an infusion of hemlock?"

She smiled sweetly at him even as her emerald eyes darkened to nearly black and Tom felt his own eyes widen as his eyebrows rose and threatened to disappear into his hairline. "I…," her comment momentarily rendered him speechless. No one at Hogwarts had _ever _spoken to him that way before. Tom had no idea how to respond.

Feeling victorious, Lily let herself smirk as she reached across the desk and picked up the second vial. Examining it she noted that this one was full of a very thin liquid that was a very light pink which turned orange when she tipped the vial to one side. She knew what this one was too but she decided that in an effort to appear accommodating, if only for Slughorn's sake, she'd let Riddle take this one. "Here," she said, handing him the vial, "It's your turn. Dazzle me."

Riddle shot her an accusatory glare. "You're mocking me."

"No! Really?"

His glare intensified. "I will give you one warning and one warning only. Do not continue to cross me; you will regret it if you do."

Lily snorted, completely unaffected by the threat. "There are few absolutes in this world Riddle but be assured that one of them is that I will never be afraid of you."

He turned to her. "You are so certain?"

She shot him a look. "I feel as though we've had this conversation before."

Tom scowled. "You should not be trying to provoke me."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Well someone ought to; you are far too full of yourself if you ask me."

"I didn't."

"Then it's a good thing my opinion's free."

"Lily," there was a grave amount of warning in Riddle's tone, "Do not push me."

Something about the way he said it made her self-preservation instinct kick in and remind her who it was she was talking to. Reluctantly Lily found herself backing down. "Fine, whatever. Just analyze the poison already," she snapped.

Tom complied and cast a simple diagnostic spell over the vial which then glowed a bright purple before returning to its original color. "This is a venom, most likely from a variety of reptile; serpent perhaps. It is a neurotoxin."

Lily said nothing but nodded before turning her attention to the chapter in her text book that covered what they were currently doing. Ten minutes later Slughorn called time and then assigned them all their homework for the evening before giving them the rest of the time to talk. Riddle pulled out a book and began to read while Lily picked up her books and returned to her original seat.

Xander turned to her almost as soon as she sat down. "You're alive!" he teased before asking, in a more serious tone, "Did he say anything to you?"

Lily scowled. "He threatened me; told me not to continue to cross him."

Abraxas' eyes narrowed. "Did he?"

"Mmmm," Lily nodded. "He did."

"And you said?" Emily prompted.

Lily took a breath. "That I'm not afraid of him."

"Lily!" Emily exclaimed, shocked and worried at how little caution her friend was taking with the whole situation. "You can't say things like that!"

Lily looked at her. "Why not, it's the truth. I'm not afraid of him and I never will be. Period."

Emily let out a growl of frustration. "I don't think you understand how much trouble you could be in. Lily, Riddle could seriously hurt you. You have to take his threats seriously."

Lily rounded on the dark haired witch. "And you have to understand that I am more than capable of defending myself. Riddle doesn't scare me and I refuse to allow him to have that power over me," the bell rang and Lily found herself taking a deep breath as she and her friends gathered their things to leave. "Please Emily, just let it go. We're never going to see eye to eye on this so let's just drop it okay?"

Emily considered the proposal before nodding her head in reluctant acceptance. "Fine, I'll let it go but when he finally does hex you don't think I won't be there to tell you I told you so."

With a curt smile Lily nodded and followed the boys out of the classroom.

~xXx~

The rest of the week was a study in endurance and torture as Lily settled into the rest of her classes. She shared nearly every one with a certain dark haired, dark eyed someone who, unless she was otherwise forced to acknowledge his existence, Lily had just decided to ignore. The plan was working swimmingly and there were no complaints from either party until the sixth year Slytherins walked into Charms on Friday to find that the classroom had been expanded to nearly twice its normal size and was filled with not only their fellow sixth years but also half of fifth year and Professors Limpkin and Merrythought.

Abraxas came up short and Lily only barely managed to keep from running into him. "What the…"

"Well this can't be good," Xander exclaimed stepping around the immobile Malfoy as he entered the room. "Those fifth years look way too pleased with something. I predict that this won't end well."

"Didn't you fail Divination?" his sister asked as the four of them shuffled further into the room to accommodate for the abnormally large class. "How do you know that this is going to end badly. A combined class could be fun."

Xander's ears turned pink. "Crystal ball gazing is stupid and I don't have to use Divination to divine that this is going to end terribly. In the History of Hogwarts every time two classes decide to combine the outcome is never good. This one won't be good either."

Behind the siblings, Abraxas and Lily snickered at the exchange. The bell rang and any other comments from the Lestrange twins were cut off as Merrythought and Limpkin called the class to order and began to explain.

"Today we'll be working on defensive charms so I've asked Professor Merrythought to oversee today's class," Limpkin said, looking out across the gathered students. "My sixth years will be participating in a sort of mock duel in which only charms will be allowed for both offense and defense…"

"See," Emily prodded her brother, "A charm's duel; that doesn't sound so bad does it?"

But Xander wasn't convinced. "Wait for it."

Limpkin continued. "And because today's lesson is technically a dueling one Professor Merrythought's fifth years and my sixth year witches will be observing."

Xander grinned. "And there it is," he said triumphantly before turning to look down at the red haired witch by his side. She was fuming. "Tough luck Lil."

"We'll see," she seethed as she took a step forwards and raised her hand. "Professor Limpkin," she called. He turned.

"Yes Miss Claire?"

Lily lowered her hand and fixed her professor with a dark look. "Have you ever been on the front lines of a battle?"

The Professor looked confused. "No," he said slowly, "But I don't see how that's – "

"I have," Lily interrupted him, ignoring the whispered hisses she was getting from Emily to stop she trudged forwards. "And the weak are always the first to be targeted. This serves two purposes. It divides the attention of the unit as a whole and puts them on offense instead of defense."

"Miss Claire I don't think – "

"So you see by preventing us from learning to defend ourselves you are in fact making us targets for any witch or wizard out there that might want to harm us. If Grindelwald or his knights were to attack Hogwarts then all you teachers would be too busy protecting us poor, helpless witches to defend the school."

"Miss Claire -"

"Doesn't it bother you that you're handicapping us in a time when it's most definitely not in our best interest to be helpless? You're insuring that if we were to ever find ourselves alone and without support that we'd all most certainly be killed almost immediately with no hope of even lifting our w –"

"Miss Claire!"

Lily's mouth snapped shut and she glared at the now very flustered, very red Professor Limpkin who was standing in front of her wringing his hands together.

He took a deep breath. "You are never going to be attacked," he assured her. "And as for whatever battle you say you've seen I doubt that it was so serious or deadly as you are making it out to b – "

"Ten October three years ago, Austria," Lily recited naming one particularly gruesome battle that had taken place between Europe's Auror forces and Grindelwald and his followers. Xavier had been at that battle, he'd been at many, but he'd told her that if she had any problems at school getting people to believe that she knew how to fight she was to use that one. "Do you know how many killing curses I dodged that day?"

A whisper went up around the room as the shocked students stared at the witch in front of them. Professor Merrythought and Limpkin looked at one another before the former exclaimed, "You were there!?"

Lily nodded. "I was."

Merrythought looked absolutely horrified. "Why!?" he asked before he shook his head and took a step back. "No, never mind, I don't wish to know. Regardless of how many battle's you have or have not seen Miss Claire you will not be participating in today's lesson. I cannot condone it. Witnessing a battle is not the same as participating in one."

"How do you know I haven't?"

Merrythought came up short. "What?"

Lily looked at him defiantly. "You assume that I've only ever witnessed true battle but what you fail to understand is that I have not only witnessed it, I have lived it. My father made certain that I did not need some wizard to watch over and guard me while he was off waging war; I can protect myself."

"I don't care Miss Claire," the defense teacher argued unwilling to concede defeat to a sixteen year old girl who, for all he knew, was making this all up. "You will not be participating in the lesson. You aren't capable of – "

"Pardon me, Professor, but if I may?"

Both Merrythought and Lily turned to see who had interrupted them. It was Riddle; Lily glared at him.

"Yes Mr. Riddle?" Limpkin prompted eager for anything that would either distract from or end this pointless argument between his colleague and what was possibly the most stubborn young witch Limpkin had ever met.

Tom cleared his throat and pasted a bland smile on his face. Listening to Claire fight for the right to duel had been both interesting and enlightening. Interesting because watching her had been amusing; she was quite passionate when she argued. Enlightening because he fully believed that she had done as she claimed, there was just too much conviction in her voice for her stories to be fabrications. This gave him an opportunity. He still wanted retribution for last week's Transfiguration class but, more importantly, he wanted her to take him seriously as a threat. Lily Claire wasn't afraid of him and he wanted to make her so. If he challenged her in front of their peers and won not only would _she_ fear him but her friends, the Lestrange twins and Abraxas Malfoy, would grow cautious of his as well.

"I have a solution."

Limpkin nodded for him to continue. "Yes?"

Tom turned towards Lily and fixed his eyes to hers. "Miss Claire claims that she is capable of dueling and, forgive me Professors, but her knowledge seems genuine. If that's the case then why not let her prove it."

Clearly this was not the answer that Merrythought, Limpkin or even Lily had been expecting. All three of them together exclaimed loudly, "_What!?_"

Riddle grinned. "Let her prove it. Allow her to participate this one time and, if she is victorious, then at your discretion she can begin to participate in other practical defense lessons. But, if she is not successful or she forfeits then your point will be made and she, along with the other witches, will continue to simply observe."

Limpkin looked unsure of this new development; Merrythought thoughtful. "And who would you have be her opponent Mr. Riddle?" the defense teacher asked. "I don't know of many wizards who would feel comfortable dueling a young witch even if you'll only be using charms."

Before anyone else could reply, like Malfoy or Lestrange, Tom said very clearly, "I will."

Merrythought frowned. "I'm still not certain – "

"I accept."

Both Professors rounded on the girl. "You do?" they chorused.

Lily nodded. "Yes," she said, "I do."

Limpkin and Merrythought exchanged glanced before the latter sighed in defeat. "Alright," he said reluctantly, "I will allow this. If you win then you may begin participating in practical defense lessons. If you lose, I do not want to hear another word on the subject again do I make myself clear?"

Lily nodded. "Yes, Professor."

"Right," Merrythought cleared his throat and then began pushing the students – many of whom were shaking their heads in disbelief – back to the far side of the room. "Charms only," he called out over his shoulder to the dueling pair who were now facing each other at the head of the room. "You may begin when ready."

Tom turned to Lily and bowed. She did the same and then, almost before she had straightened the rest of the way back up, Riddle took up a ready stance, took aim and fired.

"_Diffindo_!"

Lily smirked and raised her wand. "_Protego_!"

Riddle's spell hit her shield and was neutralized. He cast again. "Epoximise!" he hissed, aiming his wand at the witch's feet hoping to adhere them to the floor.

Lily skipped out of the way before shooting off her own spell; a non-verbal leg-locking charm. The red bolt of light left her wand and whizzed towards Riddle who was caught off guard. He blocked it but only just and Lily could see a bright flush of anger beginning to creep up the boy's neck and face. She smirked; things were about to get interesting.

Riddle's next spell was fast and Lily almost didn't have time to put up a shield. "_Incindio_!"

The ball of flame whizzed towards her and slammed into her hastily erected shield. The spell was strong and had a lot of power behind it, Lily knew that she wouldn't be able to hold the shield for long so she canceled it and flung herself to the side letting the flame ball crash into the wall behind her. Coming up to her knees from her roll she waved her wand and shouted, "_Nilabhair_!"

Tom had no idea what that meant but he heard both Professors gasp just before Lily's spell smacked right into the center of his chest and he felt his mouth snap shut and his tongue freeze. It took him a few seconds to realize that she'd silenced him. His eyes widened and he glared at her.

Lily smirked. "No one ever said that the charms had to be Latin," she said before casting again, "_Aquarium Erecto_!"

Unable to speak Riddle had little choice but to dodge the jet of water by leaping out of its way. Narrowly avoiding getting soaked he felt the unfamiliar silencing charm loosing strength and was able to just barely croak, "_Defodio!_"

"_Cosain Mé!_"

This time Tom was able to recognize at least one of the words. Cosain was Gaelic for 'to protect' and it was his best guess that it was some sort of shield spell. His theory was proven accurate when, seconds later, a white sort of mist rose all around Lily and encased her, protecting her from the onslaught of his charm. Unlike other shield charms though, this one didn't end once its purpose had been served but stayed active. Tom had to squint in order to make out the witch's movements as Lily cast her next spell from inside the haze. He barely had time to duck as a globe of what he thought might be pure magical energy encased inside of a charmed bubble was suddenly flung at him. It missed his head by inches and crashed into the wall behind him sending shards of brick flying in all directions.

The charm's classroom now had a brand new window.

"Bloody hell!" yelled one of the students watching from the back of the room as a bit of brick from the wall clipped him on the back of the head. "What the hell are the two of you trying to do? Kill each -"

"_Descriptius!_"

Lily threw up another shield but the force of Riddle's spell was too strong and it threw her off her feet. She landed on her back with a grunt and a thud, rolling out of the way as another spell came whizzing towards her. A scorch mark appeared on the ground where her body had been moments before and without really thinking about where she was or who was watching, Lily felt her training kick in as she took aim and spelled again.

"_Verisectius Toterium!_"

Riddle's eyes widened in horror as the charm most often used to vasectomize animals was flung at him with an alarming amount of force and speed. He didn't even bother trying to shield himself, he just ducked. The room, meanwhile, went into an uproar. Both Limpkin and Merrythought starting yelling, several students started whimpering and Tom ignored them all while he searched his memory for an equally brutal spell, took aim and fired.

"_Avada Disterius!_"

Lily blocked it. "_Everata!_"

"_Constrita!_"

"_Tericosta!_"

"_Defendo Maximus!_"

The last two spells met in midair, collided and exploded sending the majority of the students and both teachers running for cover; diving behind desks, bookcases and each other in an effort to get out of the way.

"This is insane!" a Ravenclaw boy yelled over the roar of clashing charms. "They're using auror level defense charms!"

"At least they're sticking to charms," another fifth year Ravenclaw pointed out, crouching lower behind an overturned desk. "Could you imagine what would be happening if they weren't?"

"It's bad enough now," a Gryffindor girl said emphatically, ducking out of the way of a flying book that had been charmed to attack like a hawk. "I can't imagine what it'd be like if they were just flat out dueling."

"I can," a Hufflepuff said. "It would be worse."

"I'll give her this much," the same Ravenclaw commented after daring to sneak a peek at Riddle and Claire who had now evolved to volleying silent, non-verbal spells at one another from opposite ends of the classroom, "She does know what she's doing."

"Think Merrythought's revising his whole 'witches are weak' outlook?" another girl asked.

"I know I am," the Hufflepuff from before said passionately. "I don't know about you but if this is what she can do with just charms I'd hate to see her in an actual duel."

Meanwhile the Slytherins – sequestered from the rest of the cowering students – were pondering a similar conundrum. "Still think Lily ought to be afraid of Riddle!?" Xander asked his sister facetiously as Lily blocked yet another attempt by the teenaged dark wizard to catch her off guard. "She's doing very well don't you think?"

Emily looked around the room, dismayed. "The spells she's using are horrible! Did you see, she tried to castrate him!?"

"I know right!" Abraxas grinned. "Did you see the look on Riddle's face!? He didn't even try to block it!"

Emily was not at all pleased by Abraxas' apparent apathy. "You shouldn't be happy about that Abraxas, what if it had been you?"

"But it wasn't me and if I ever do something that makes Lily that mad I'll probably deserve to be castrated."

"Abraxas!"

The Malfoy shrugged and risked a peek out from around the transfigured bookcase that he and the other Slytherins were using as a shield. "Think it'll be over soon?"

"Unlikely," Xander answered loudly. "I'm pretty sure they're trying to kill each other."

Emily let out a whimper. "Where are the teachers?" she asked, scanning the room wildly. "Why haven't they stopped them!? This is madness!"

As if in answer to Emily's query a loud bang shook the classroom and made everyone who was either hiding behind or under something look up. The door to the classroom had been flung open and in the doorway stood a very confused, very angry looking Professor Dippet and an amused looking Dumbledore.

"What in Merlin's name is going on here!?"

Lily and Tom both lowered their wands mid-casting and turned to face the Headmaster while Professors Merrythought and Limpkin ducked out from behind the latter's desk. "Headmaster," they both began lamely, "I-If you'll allow us to explain – "

Dippet turned a warning glance onto the two of them. "Go on."

Merrythought and Limpkin faltered. "Ah…well…"

"Perhaps we should allow Mr. Riddle and Miss Claire to present their case?" Dumbledore suggested, nodding towards the two armed students. "They seem to be the cause of all this ruckus."

Dippet rounded on them. "Yes, I can see that," he eyed the two of them, "Mr. Riddle, Miss Claire. What have you got to say for yourselves?"

Lily answered first. "We were having a charms duel Professor," she said.

One of Dippet's bushy grey eyebrows rose. "A charms duel?" he turned towards the two Professors. "And whose idea was this?"

Limpkin squeaked and stepped behind Merrythought who glared at him before facing his employer. "We originally planned for my fifth years and the witches to observe but Miss Claire insisted that she ought to be allowed to participate because apparently she is well versed in the art of dueling. Mr. Riddle volunteered to be opponent and, as you can see, she got quite out of hand."

It was not lost on Dippet that his defense teacher was attempting to blame the current state of Limpkin's classroom entirely on Xavier's daughter. "Gilbert," he addressed his colleague, "Miss Claire can duel with a higher proficiency then most aurors. Surely she told you that."

Merrythought swallowed thickly. "She informed me."

Dippet eyed him. "And you did not believe her I take it?"

"She is sixteen Headmaster!" Merrythought protested, "Sixteen and a witch. Surely you cannot honestly think that she is capable of handling herself in a situation where she must defend herself from attacking dark wizards!"

Dippet sighed. "We will discuss this later," he informed Merrythought. "You will come to my office after dinner," he turned to the other professor. "James, if you could please straighten up and see the students off to their next lesson. I'm afraid it began some ten minutes ago. Come Albus, let's away. I'm afraid I might do something I regret if I stay."

The two professors turned to leave but stopped at the doorway when the headmaster turned back. "Oh and Miss Claire," Dippet addressed her, "I've had a letter from your father. He sends you his love and a new address where your letters can be forwarded to him. There is also a gift for you waiting in my office. You may come get it after you finish with your classes for today."

Lily smiled. "Thank you Headmaster, I will."

Dippet nodded and left. Dumbledore trailed after him. As soon as they were gone Merrythought made a rather hasty exit after glaring intently at Lily in passing and the rest of the class dispersed. Riddle took off towards the library as fast as he could go and the rest of the Slytherins headed off to lunch speculating over what sort of gift was waiting for Lily in Headmaster Dippet's office.

* * *

**A/N: **So I hope this chapter served to answer the question as to why Abraxas, Xander and Emily were so accepting of Lily went she first showed up. I'll admit that last time around I never really addressed their reasoning and as a result a pretty significant plot hole was formed. And you all know how I hate plot holes. Anyway so this was my fix and I hope it did it's job. Also, I'm wondering how you all liked the new, improved 'charm off'. Please let me know your thoughts as a whole because reviews, people, are the only way fan-fiction authors such as myself get paid. I can't wait to hear from all of you, until next time!

Cheers!


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